Weather Balloons To Provide Broadband In Africa

An anonymous reader writes "Two African entrepreneurs have secured exclusive access to market near-space technology — developed by Space Data, an American telecommunications company — throughout Africa. The technology raises hydrogen-filled weather balloons to 80,000 — 100,000 feet, which individuals contact via modems. The balloons, in turn, serve as satellite substitutes which can connect Africans to broadband Internet. 'Network operation centers are located close to a fiber optic cable — say, in Lagos or Accra — and a signal is sent back and forth to the [balloon] in near space,' says one of the entrepreneurs, Timothy Anyasi. The technology will also allow mobile phone operators to offer wireless modems to customers."

Comments

Modems

[Ukab the Great]

The technology raises hydrogen-filled weather balloons to 80,000 -- 100,000 feet, which individuals contact via modems.

I would have thought that multiple 100,000 ft lengths of telephone wire would make the balloons too heavy.

Re:That's freaking awesome.

[clone53421]

Offtopic? geez, that's a bit harsh.

Yeah, I was pretty brief, but I couldn't really think of any way to elaborate on my point that wouldn't have drawn it out unnecessarily. "That's freaking awesome" pretty much said it all.