Hi Maurice, I think this one is right up your alley... -g
Cheers! Rob
Wi-Fi Heads for the Stratosphere
By Mark Long -- e-inSITE, 11/25/2002
Sanswire Technologies is teaming up with Telesphere Communications to float a whole new role for Wi-Fi technology.
The two firms have formed a joint venture that eventually intends to launch a series of solar-powered, high-altitude airships that will carry the requisite wireless relay equipment for delivering high-speed Internet access to subscribers located throughout the entire continental United States as well as portions of Canada and Mexico.
On December 11th, the two firms will be conducting a live demonstration in the Phoenix area that will be using Telesphere's prototype Airship. During the demo, Sanswire intends to randomly deploy a series of laptop computers that will all be located within a 10-mile radius. Using the 802.11 protocol, the laptops will be able to interconnect by means of the airborne platform overhead, claims Sanswire. The high-flying demo will be broadcast live over the Internet from the company's website at www.sanswire.com.
'Users of the Internet want two things: mobility and broadband access,' said Sanswire CEO Michael Molen in a statement. 'The building of wireless 'hot spots' has proven that the demand is there for high-speed wireless Internet access. Our National Wireless Network will make the entire country a 'hot spot' and allow subscribers to access the Internet whenever and wherever they choose.'
Beyond obtaining transmission rights to provide high-speed Internet access from Telesphere high-flying airships, the joint venture agreement calls for Sanswire to work with Telesphere Communications to help market antenna space on each 'Stratellite' platform to other wireless service providers. Other potential uses for the Stratellite pltaforms include cellular, 3G mobile, MMDS, paging, and fixed wireless telephony, as well as HDTV broadcasting.
Sanswire claims that the Stratellite will provide a platform in the sky that is similar to what a communication satellite can currently offer, but while stationed at significantly lower altitudes. According to Telesphere Communications spokesman Frank Lively, the company's high-altitude airships are better than satellites because their payloads can actually be recovered, as well as upgraded and re-launched within a matter of hours.
The Stratellite platforms will allow subscribers to easily communicate in 'both directions' using existing wireless devices, claims Sanswire. When flying over North America at an altitude of 13 miles, each Stratellite would be able to provide coverage of up to 300,000 square miles of the Earth's surface below. In addition, each craft would hover close enough to the Earth's surface to avoid the signal latency problem that can affect the ability of a communication satellite to establish two-way, high-speed data communication links with remote ground terminals.
But moving from a demonstration phase to a real-world system will not be all that easy. To enable its vision of a National Wireless Network, Sanswire will have to deploy a number of unmanned Stratellite platforms, each of which will have to maintain a stationary position in the stratosphere with respect to the Earth below. The unmanned platforms will also have to be controlled by tracking stations located down on the ground.
Sanswire's plan also calls for each Stratellite to maintain a stationary location in the stratosphere for up to twelve months at a time. To maintain seamless network operations, a new Stratellite would need to replace each older craft at the end of its one-year mission lifetime.
Sanswire says that its unique design approach to national wireless networking could result in savings of more than $67 million annually on tower leases while requiring less than $30 million in capital costs to implement. The first Stratellite is scheduled to be launched in 2004.
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