Balloon Based Wireless Floated

AmigaAvenger writes "It was recently announced by Yahoo news that the Arizona based company Extend America will be testing high altitude balloon service over North Dakota to handle the duties of cell phone towers. Three balloons will be able to take the place of 1,100 cell phone towers, and will remain aloft for 24 hours. Plans call for the service to be sold wholesale to existing wireless carriers, and will include both voice and data service."

Comments

And... what? How much will this cost?

[Pichu0102]

First thing, why would they spend so much money on such hardware to power this when the equipment could be damaged in the air, and second, how long daily would people have to deal with downtime if these balloons are their only way to connect?

The summary seems... off.

[heinousjay]

So they'll have to redeploy every 24 hours?

Re:Landing Zones

[macklin01]

I can just see these balloons falling in some interesting places like some guy driving 80mph down a highway and hitting one of them.

That's a good point. Fortunately, the odds are low, especially given (by TFA) that it's being targeted at very sparsely-populated markets (e.g., North Dakota). Nonetheless, they'll certainly need to weigh the low odds with the high cost of such an event. (Huge legal liability, particularly if the driver is injured or killed, or if it leads to a larger accident.)

Ona related note, for every balloon that goes up, there are two descents: one by the popped balloon, and one by the parachuting electronics. That's interesting, in that in increases the odds of hitting something on the way down. I'd almost think that it would be better to including a "popping mechanism" in the electronics package so that the deflated balloon and electronics come down at the same time. I suppose they'd be worried about the deflated balloon snarling the parachute, though. -- Paul

Stratellites Better, I Think

[DigitalRaptor]

I think that Stratellites would be better, when they are finally deployed.

One Stratellite will cover 100,000 square miles.

They remain aloft for months at a time, when it finally does need service another is sent up beside it, they electronically transfer control to the new one, and the other descends for servicing.

They are above the winds, airplanes, etc, and aren't dropping things every 24 hours like the balloons in the article.

I hope they hurry up, I'm ready to subscribe so I can use the same internet connection at home, on the road, and at my cabin.