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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."
to fill the gap until we get UAVs that can stay up for extended periods of time.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
but with CCTV cameras rather than broadband
weather.com
So what happens then when these untethered balloons are floating up into the jet stream and a Airbus or 747 doesn't pick it up on radar and the damn thing floats right into the jet intake, causing an explosion and bringing down 400 souls to their death?
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Second thought -- Palm doesn't want anyone talking about tethers.
Third thought after reading the article -- they're just releasing these balloons and letting them come down after a day in the air? Just hunting the damn things down will be a chore and a half. But this is precisely the market segment the UAV people were talking about. I think the name they were using was aerostat. Idea 1 is using a solar-powered aircraft to fly in U2 territory relaying data. Missions would last three or four months and then the plane is brought back down for maintenance. The idea is that the solar cells would charge during the day and the engines would operate off of batteries at night. The second idea is using some manner of unmanned dirigible where buoyancy is provided by hydrogen and the solar-powered engines are meant for station-keeping.
I guess this is really a matter of economics -- I guess it's cheaper to hire a guy and a jeep and hand him a map versus paying millions for air vehicles that aren't in production yet?
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Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
It is quite possible that the balloon(i.e. the actual gas-filled bit) only costs $50; but I'd suspect that the equipment package hanging underneath it costs a good bit more, at least one factor of ten, quite possibly more. I say this because you can, just about, if your time is free, get an ordinary wifi router and a battery to suit rigged up for $50. I'd be absolutely shocked if you could get a proper, tested, setup for a reasonable number of users, with battery and GPS and radio(s) for $50.
[1131] Disconnected: Balloon Service Interrupted. Try again later.
Speaking from personal experience with the near space launches I have completed with a team (http://nearspace.0x58.com) located in Arizona, I hope they don't make the mistake of putting the GPS on the outside of the box. During our second balloon launch we launched closer to night so that we could attempt to get photo's of the sun setting (and boy did we succeed: http://nearspace.0x58.com/launches/CONNERY-2/pictures/Payload_Camera/).
However what we had not counted on was the fact that the temperature would drop so low that the GPS would literally freeze and stop responding and completely shut off, until it got low enough, and warm enough again to turn on. We thought we had lost our package payload.
Other than that, since the balloons are going to follow whatever winds they can find, how are they going to make sure that the area they want to service has a balloon above it at all times? What if the wind is going in the wrong direction? As for recovering the devices, will they be water proof? What if it lands in a lake, or body of water? What about high up on the mountain side somewhere?
Definitely interesting and something to watch in the near future, if this is cheaper than launching a satellite and can be done in a sustainable method and still provide adequate phone service or other services using near space technology!
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This could give a whole new meaning to "the internet is down". Of course when signing up you have to be wary when they advertise "high"-speed internet. I guess it should work fine though, given the cheap overhead. I just wish it wasn't only planned for parts of Africa, as it sounds like it will be above and beyond what we've got here in America.
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This may be news to you, but not everyone in Africa is starving.
Apparently the balloons need to be taken down daily to have their batteries recharched. I wonder, wouldn't 80,000-100,000 feet be mostly above cloud level and be an excellent opportunity to use solar cells?
The balloons come down every 24 hours due to the limitations of battery life -- and to keep them from floating into territories that don't subscribe to the service.
The drifting might be a tougher nut to crack though. Rather interesting idea for rural areas actually.
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When you take into a ccount that any time they try and lay fiber it gets stolen and sold for it's scrap value, this is a great idea. Less chance of the infrastructure being stolen/damaged.
First of all, if they are seriously considering a commercial venture here, it implies there are enough well-off people to be served that it could be a viable business. Second, this will simply generate business, which means more cashflow, leading to more economic growth witin these countries. Not to mention poverty is commonly tied to low education and the internet is a powerful educational tool when used properly.
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This seems like an awfully expensive solution. Does anyone remember Stratovision? It was too costly to keep a B-29 in the air 24/7 just to broadcast. Why should it be any different with disposable air balloons carrying easily lost technology?
If God meant for cell towers to be attached to balloons, he would have, uh, err, done something different!
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
So what happens then when these untethered balloons are floating up into the jet stream and a Airbus or 747 doesn't pick it up on radar and the damn thing floats right into the jet intake, causing an explosion and bringing down 400 souls to their death?
More than likely? Thousands of customers below will go "Hey, who turned off the f*ckin' Internet?"
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
The US has been using these along the southern border for years. They are tethered & fly at 15,000 feet and provide radar coverage along the border to interdict drug smuggling by air. They had problems with leaky balloons, and the need to ground them for maintenance, at which time they were vulnerable to bad weather on the surface. There were formal no-fly zones posted in their vicinity. Apparently there was no problem with aircraft running into them. I've driven along I-10 and occasionally have been able to see them in the air, they definitely look like hovering flying saucers.
I have an important transaction in progress with someone in the ministry of finance. This will maybe help the transaction go smoother!
Not only that but communication tools are vital to improving the livelihood of Africans. I've been working with an open source tool, Frontline SMS - it's already being used to do some amazing things.
Rather than continuing to send cash and some food, which has thus far not really been much help - we can help build infrastructure that will give people more control over their own lives and the ability to improve their circumstances on their own.
I saw a demo a couple weeks ago by some guys from a communications lab from a local university. They are building a system to provide educational materials via mobile phones - iphone and android right now. They've got grants to get androids on the ground in developing nations. The system can work completely via sms if necessary but an internet connection is better.
There are some exciting things going on in tech in Africa and this is cool to see.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
"Look its a bird!"
"Its a plane!"
"Uh its my ISP bro..."
My parents live in Africa and get better cell coverage than I do here in the USA. They can drive from northern Zambia to the tip of South Africa and never lose signal.
So Why not just use the existing Cell Towers to provide broadband?
Neat Idea, they should deploy these in rural america where verizon doesn't go and the comcast/at&t duopoly is fierce..
I wish the only issues were a duopoly. In many areas of the US, high-speed, low-latency Internet access is simply unavailable.
When it is available, the only current option is to spend $5-30k for telco "special construction charges" and $500+/month for a T1.
Consumer level satellite options (WildBlue, Hughes) have really tight bandwidth quotas and latency of 1-2seconds. The quota on the $100/month WildBlue "Professional" tier is 17GB down/month (30-day rolling cycle) and 5GB up with a $400 dish/modem purchase. Hughes has several tiers but you're out $700 for the dish/modem and $120-$500/month depending on the speed and bandwidth quotas you need.
Yet whenever any of these long-haul wireless and uav devices are discussed, the focus is on Africa. Why is that? I'll pay you the same or more than an African for the flexibility of living anywhere in the United States with a high-bandwidth, low-latency connection and I suspect a lot of other people would do so as well.
...will be the ping/lag. Like trying to play CPMA with someone in UAE.
Well, better than nothing. :)
The latency should be much, much better than current geosynchronous satellite options. I wouldn't expect balloon-based repeaters to have latency above 100ms. Compare that to WildBlue/Hughes with real-world latency of 1000-2500ms (they claim 500-750ms).