Weather Balloons To Provide Broadband In Africa 179
An anonymous reader writes "Two African entrepreneurs have secured exclusive access to market near-space technology — developed by Space Data, an American telecommunications company — throughout Africa. The technology raises hydrogen-filled weather balloons to 80,000 — 100,000 feet, which individuals contact via modems. The balloons, in turn, serve as satellite substitutes which can connect Africans to broadband Internet. 'Network operation centers are located close to a fiber optic cable — say, in Lagos or Accra — and a signal is sent back and forth to the [balloon] in near space,' says one of the entrepreneurs, Timothy Anyasi. The technology will also allow mobile phone operators to offer wireless modems to customers."
They'll have these in England soon (Score:5, Funny)
Only one accessible site though (Score:5, Funny)
first thought -- gonna need a really long tether! (Score:4, Funny)
Second thought -- Palm doesn't want anyone talking about tethers.
Third thought after reading the article -- they're just releasing these balloons and letting them come down after a day in the air? Just hunting the damn things down will be a chore and a half. But this is precisely the market segment the UAV people were talking about. I think the name they were using was aerostat. Idea 1 is using a solar-powered aircraft to fly in U2 territory relaying data. Missions would last three or four months and then the plane is brought back down for maintenance. The idea is that the solar cells would charge during the day and the engines would operate off of batteries at night. The second idea is using some manner of unmanned dirigible where buoyancy is provided by hydrogen and the solar-powered engines are meant for station-keeping.
I guess this is really a matter of economics -- I guess it's cheaper to hire a guy and a jeep and hand him a map versus paying millions for air vehicles that aren't in production yet?
IRC (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The origin of the internet (Score:2, Funny)
No, the internet was invented by Al Gore for research Universities to share data and information and all information on the internet wants to be free and the fact that for-profit business are on the internet (instead of our beloved for-profit universities) is a shame, they're not even legally supposed to be here because the internet is not for corporations but for the free and uninhibited spread of information among users (as long as they're not idiots, wake me up when september ends and the freshman get a grip on netiquette) also does anyone have a spare zip drive I could borrow?
Redefining technology (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Disaster? (Score:5, Funny)
So what happens then when these untethered balloons are floating up into the jet stream and a Airbus or 747 doesn't pick it up on radar
causing an explosion and bringing down 400 souls to their death
Looks like you've answered your own question there. I just hope I'm not on that plane.
Re:They'll have these in England soon (Score:5, Funny)
What happens? (Score:3, Funny)
So what happens then when these untethered balloons are floating up into the jet stream and a Airbus or 747 doesn't pick it up on radar and the damn thing floats right into the jet intake, causing an explosion and bringing down 400 souls to their death?
More than likely? Thousands of customers below will go "Hey, who turned off the f*ckin' Internet?"
Re:This will be nice (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps because: "The balloons come down every 24 hours due to the limitations of battery life -- and to keep them from floating into territories that don't subscribe to the service. "You're looking at a wide geographic area -- there's a wide jet stream at near space"
BTW, you'll NEVER GUESS where that quote came from... NEVER!
Yay! Nigeria will be covered. (Score:2, Funny)
I have an important transaction in progress with someone in the ministry of finance. This will maybe help the transaction go smoother!
what is it? (Score:3, Funny)
"Its a plane!"
"Uh its my ISP bro..."
Re:This will be nice (Score:2, Funny)
From the TFA? I wouldn't know I didn't read it...
Re:They'll have these in England soon (Score:4, Funny)
Or maybe you're right - perhaps English gents use umbrellas all the time because of the floating cameras...
Re:This will be nice (Score:3, Funny)
6.7 billion people are working on it?
Re:really? (Score:1, Funny)
Yes, we need to improve the infrastructure in Africa, in fact, I was just contacted by someone the other day who says he maintains a controlling interest in the African Balloon Internet business, but needs to flee the country due to unrest.
He said from my posts that I seemed trustworthy and he wanted to offer his shares to me first, and at a reduced rate!
I figure with the money I make on this venture I'll be able to retire early, all I had to do was wire him some money from my bank account to get the ball rolling, and he should be sending me the stock transfer agreement later this week.