Heeeeeeeeeeeee's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Haig's in charge as company launches phone blimp plan
WASHINGTON - A bid by former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig
Jr. and others to build a global communications network with 250
blimps has gotten a boost from federal regulators, who have agreed
to set aside airwaves that could be used by the ambitious venture.
Acting on a request by Haig's company - Sky Station International
Inc. of Washington, D.C. - the Federal Communications Commission
last month quietly approved a plan to open up a band of previously
unused high-frequency airwaves for new wireless communications
services.
The airwaves would be auctioned by the FCC to the highest bidder,
probably within 12 months, an agency official said.
The plan is riddled with high risks, including the need to develop
revolutionary technology to hold the 11-ton blimps in place and to
use the high-frequency airwaves.
And it would compete with a host of other global satellite
ventures being launched over the next few years to provide wireless
communications.
Sky Station, whose key investors include Haig's Worldwide
Associates and a company headed by former computer executive Edward
Silansky, hopes to be among the first in line to acquire the
airwaves to deploy a worldwide constellation of helium-filled blimps
floating 13 miles above the Earth's surface.
The blimps would be used to relay phone calls and connect
computers to the Internet up to 100 times faster than high-speed
phone lines. They would function as a sort of self-contained,
wireless network covering a 50-mile-radius region.
The blimps would relay wireless messages directly from any user to
another in its coverage area who is equipped with a wireless
transceiver about the size of current portable computer modems. For
longer distances, users would require a bigger antenna. And for
intercity links, the airships would connect with ground stations
that would send signals over the regular public telephone network.
Sky Station executives say the service will be priced less than
competing wireless services.
The FCC decision "is something that we are very pleased is now in
place and we expect to be in operation by 1999," said Paul Mahon,
senior vice president and general counsel. Haig was not available
for comment.
But the $4.2-billion project has been ridiculed by many experts,
including rival wireless provider Motorola Inc., which contends the
plan has huge safety, financial and technical shortcomings.
But money is the least of Sky Station's problems. Even before it
launches any blimps, Sky Station must figure out how to harness the
newly allocated airwaves.
FCC engineers found that the ultra-high frequency airwaves being
set aside will require high-cost receivers and transmitters in order
to avoid interference from rain, snow, buildings and other physical
obstructions.
In addition, keeping 250 11-ton blimps stationary above the Earth
will pose a potential risk for people living below them.
But Sky Station said it will keep the blimps safely aloft with a
"Corona Ion Engine," which uses the surrounding atmosphere and the
sun as fuel sources to keep the blimps in place. |
