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To: DaYooper who wrote (4501)	6/25/2002 11:47:54 AM
From: waitwatchwander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12231

Solar-powered blimps seen in future of phone service boston.com By Reuters, 6/25/2002 LONDON - Huge airships hovering miles above major cities could replace satellites as providers of telephone and Internet services in as little as five years, Britain's Meteorological Office said yesterday. The unmanned balloons would sit in the stratosphere, between 7.5 and 37 miles above sea level, holding position by use of solar-powered propellers and the vagaries of the weather in inner space. ''They will essentially be big, solar-powered blimps which hover in the stratosphere miles above our heads,'' said Mark Higgins, an innovations facilitator at the office. ''The benefit for phone companies is that they will cost a fraction of what it takes to send satellites up into space.'' The meteorological office is working closely with two Britons who are attempting to fly a large helium balloon to the edge of space this summer. The hope is that meteorological tests carried out during the world record flight - up to 25 miles, if all goes to plan - will improve high-altitude forecasting techniques and hasten the advent of commercial satellite balloons. The first cities to be served by the balloons would be those near the tropics, such as Singapore and Los Angeles, where the stratosphere's weather is more predictable and benign. Test balloons are penciled in for about five years' hence. Once the technology has been proven, such ballons could be used farther from the equator, Higgins said. Blimps relaying mobile telephone signals would allay many health concerns over receiver masts placed near homes and offices. ''It could change broadband and Internet services over a city, as well as mobile telephone networks,'' Higgins said. This story ran on page A11 of the Boston Globe on 6/25/2002. © Copyright 2002 Globe Newspaper Company.