lutful... of ideasPremium
join:2005-06-16
Ottawa, ON Reviews:
 ·TekSavvy DSL
| WISP backhaul using blimps Anousheh Ansari paid $20M to fly on a Soyuz rocket to the Space Station. She has also booked first commercial flight on SpaceShipOne, which won the $10M Ansari X-Prize.
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anousheh_Ansari
Anyway, while researching Ansari and X-Prize, I came across "X-Station" plans by Kamal Alavi, another Iranian space/aeronautics enthusiast.
»www.ethlife.ethz.ch/e/articles/s···lon.html
Each blimp covers 1000 km radius from 20km altitude, so I am thinking that X-Stations could easily provide low-latency backhaul solution to hundreds of rural WISPs around major cities.
With less dense atmosphere and no fog, clouds or rain, it may be possible to use terabit laser links between blimps to provide competition to telco fiber backbones.
Future seems bright for rural WISPs - if the blimps go up and stay up. |
|
 rawgerzThe hell was that?Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA | While I would personally love to see these utilized for people who can not get broadband, the simple truth is that the Telco's will never let them get off the ground, literally.
They will lobby and tie them up in the courts until they give up. Just look at the muni fiber project in LA.
It would be great if starband and Direcway used these instead.. latency in the single digits. |
|
| reply to lutful
a blimb would put us normal people out of a job, i should hope it never goes up too! You arent going to see anyone put up blimbs but people with deep pockets. |
|
| I doubt we will see an Iranian allowed to put blimps about the US!!!
--
»magicwisp.com |
|
lutful... of ideasPremium
join:2005-06-16
Ottawa, ON Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| reply to rawgerz
I agree that X-Station operators have to be convinced that providing affordable backhaul to many rural WISPs will make them "extra" money with less hassle than if they tried to become a large-scale WISP.
It is very encouraging that US defence establishment did not stop SpaceShipOne but it is possible they did not think burning laughing gas in a rubber tube will work better than those NASA rockets. 
If the blimps fail to go up and stay up, it will most likely be due to technical issues. |
|
lutful... of ideasPremium
join:2005-06-16
Ottawa, ON | reply to jdmarti1
Discovered European Eunion is funding a similar project for their "broadband for all" initiative. They have some photos from test flights over Sweden.
»www.capanina.org/ |
|
| reply to lutful
Too many folks with 30-06 rifles in our area. We'd have to use Kevlar blimps. |
|
 John GaltForward, MarchPremium
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp
kudos:5 | reply to jdmarti1
said by jdmarti1:I doubt we will see an Iranian allowed to put blimps about the US!!! 
--
A is A |
|
lutful... of ideasPremium
join:2005-06-16
Ottawa, ON Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| reply to lutful
Binary1000, these blimps are almost invisible at 15-20 miles height.
jdmarti1, Alavi should have no trouble sending up blimps over USA since Ansari, who is wearing both Iranian and US colors in space tonight, has permission to fly private sub-orbital spaceships between USA, UAE and Singapore. |
|
rawgerzThe hell was that?Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA | reply to binary1000
They are too high for any bullets to reach them.. now artillery.. that's a different story.. |
|
| reply to lutful
Lutful, a group is already staging to do this in the US now, they are assembling their equipment as we speak. We'll have to wait and see how well it works.
I doubt you will be able to convince them to do the backhaul idea though as everyone's thoughts are on the last mile.
As to the defense department blocking the attempts, you realize Space Ship One comes from a defense contractor right? It's highly probably that the design features of that craft will make it into the next series of space vehicles flown by the US government.
--
CCNA, Comtrain Certified Tower Climber |
|
|
|
 harvSkiPremium
join:2004-03-09
London, UK | reply to lutful
People have been working on this for quite a while now
»news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2940378.stm |
|
lutful... of ideasPremium
join:2005-06-16
Ottawa, ON Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| I recall reading about SkyLINC, Helios, and other high altitude broadband plans. Hopefully the solar blimp use best features of both balloons and planes. 
I like this quote from the BBC link:
"It is quite feasible but it has to overcome the attitude in telecommunications that things have been done a certain way of 20 years and have to been done the same way for the next 20 years"
Professor Jim Norton, broadband expert |
|
