Broadband Via Airships Tested

October 20th, 2005 · No Comments

Broadband via balloon

In what is a romantic mix of 30s jetsetting and the modern internet, the BBC reports of tests of broadband via airships:

The latest broadband delivery system has seen researchers looking to the skies to provide super-fast internet access via airships.

Airships in the stratosphere beaming back broadband capable of speeds up to 120Mbps may seem like fantasy.

But tests in Sweden have suggested it could become a reality within three to five years.

A successful trial of the technology has been conducted by researchers, led by the University of York in the UK.

Trials using a 12,000 cubic metre balloon, flying at an altitude of around 24 kilometres for nine hours, have proved it can successfully operate a data rate link of 11Mbps.

“Proving the ability to operate a high data rate link from a moving stratospheric balloon is a critical step in moving towards the longer term aim of providing data rates of 120Mbps,” said Dr David Grace, the project’s principal scientific officer.

Seeing that these overgrown balloons are relatively cheap they could give satellites a run for their money, especially seing as you can also route VOIP over them. The only negative point of these things is that a prakster with a model airplane and a BB gun can take down internet access for a wide area by shooting down one of these babies.