From WA8DZP's technology mailing list.  An opportunity for us?

73.  Jim, W6CF



Bird? Plane? UFO? No, Stratellite
By Xeni Jardin

Story location:

02:00 AM Dec. 23, 2002 PT

Three companies are devising plans to send unmanned, spherical
airships into the stratosphere to serve as relay platforms for
two-way wireless broadband service.

Canadian R&D firm 21st Century Airships signed a partnership
agreement in November with Atlanta's Techsphere Communications that
includes plans to send the Canadian firm's high-altitude balloons
70,000 feet above sea level for use as telecommunications beacons.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but through the agreement,
Techsphere provides R&D funding to the Canadian airship firm, and in
turn becomes the exclusive provider of spherical airship technology
to U.S. telecom and defense industries.

Another Atlanta-based firm, wireless Internet developer Sanswire, is
negotiating with Techsphere for exclusive rights to release an
airship-based wireless Internet service throughout the United States
by 2004, at a targeted consumer subscription price of $29 a month.

Sanswire CEO Michael Molen calls the platforms "stratellites" because
they will fly 13 miles up in the stratosphere -- not out in space as
satellites do. Satellite-based Internet services provide high-speed
downloads, but offer limited two-way capability because of the long
distance from Earth to satellite and back.

Molen says Sanswire's system will deliver Wi-Fi connections to
consumers, and 5.8 GHz and licensed spectrum ranges to ISPs.
Additional potential applications include cellular, 3G, paging, fixed
wireless and high-definition TV broadcasts.

What makes 21st Century's airships unique is their orb-like shape.
Unlike conventional, cigar-shaped blimps that must make wide turns to
reposition when they veer off target, the Canadian firm's spheres use
GPS detectors and propulsion engines to keep each floating station
locked at desired coordinates. A well-known stratosphere-based
wireless service provider that was established in 1997, SkyStation,
uses cigar-shaped airships.

Techsphere CEO Keith Vierela believes stratosphere-based networks
combine the strengths of terrestrial networks -- higher bandwidth,
lower power requirements and proximity to users -- with those of
satellite networks, which have wide coverage areas and unobstructed
paths between transmitters in the sky and receivers on Earth.

Plans involve creating a constellation of 12 airships beyond the
range of weather and commercial air traffic. Each craft would remain
aloft for a year and service a 300,000-square-mile area -- roughly
the size of Texas and Louisiana.

"People have been thinking about this for years, but (21st Century
Airships CEO Hokan) Coltan has designed the first model that could
really work," said Vierela.

"His design does for airships what helicopters did for fixed-wing
aircraft. They can go up, down, hover or spin on an axis. When you're
in the stratosphere, that leads to interesting things."

Coltan's 60-foot-diameter prototypes have ascended 18,000 feet. At
130 feet in diameter, the next round of prototypes will climb to
30,000 to 40,000 feet in mid-2003. The final prototypes set to launch
in 2004 will be 260 feet in diameter and float 60,000 to 70,000 feet
up.

"Getting each platform in the air will cost in the tens of millions,"
said Coltan. "But a 13-mile-high tower is like a dream for wireless
providers. And if you cover urban areas with airships, what spills
over into outlying rural areas is like free coverage -- you've solved
the problem of connecting rural residents cost-effectively."

But technical and business challenges may yet ground the lofty
airship plans. Shirley Tseng, satellite application specialist with
aerospace and telecom firm Infinite Global Infrastructure, believes
cost is a major factor.

"With telecom, it's all about price," said Tseng. "People have been
trying to do this for over a decade. If they can keep costs down and
integrate into terrestrial or satellite networks, they might have a
chance."

Tellus Venture Associates President Stephen Blum said he's seen many
business plans similar to Sanswire's.

"I haven't seen one that meets aerodynamic requirements," Blum said.
"They have to float inside a 200- to 300-meter 'box,' and that's hard
for an airship. After you solve that problem, you have to create a
service that can perform better and cheaper than cable or DSL." But,
he added, the technology shows promise for countries outside the
United States.

Molen says Sanswire will perform a demonstration in early 2003 during
which a transmitter-equipped Kevlar balloon will ascend 10,000 feet,
communicating with laptops on the ground. Molen hopes to deploy the
first fully functional platform within 18 months, at an approximate
purchase cost of $10 million.

"We think this system can provide broadband to the continental U.S.
for about $100 million. People have been coming from all over the
world waving checks in the air at us."