The tests are tethered. I can't find anything that indicates the ultimate 12-mile high blimp would be tethered. Indeed, I did find references to propulsion and avionics, which would indicate that it would be designed to fly and navigate itself, not only at the end of a cable.
calvoiper -- VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies!
Oh, riiiigggghhhhtt. Hundreds of these things are going to stay up by themselves on auto pilot and maintain station for years at a time.
Besides which, I can just see the RF soup nightmare up there as they all try to use a set band of frequencies at the same time with the TX power required for a decent signal at 12 miles at 900 Mhz and above. Never mind the uplinks.
No wonder they have taken so long to even test this dufus scheme. Seems to be just a bit much when you consider that it would be MUCH easier to just rent tower space. More reliable too in the long run. Less potential for disaster.
