World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

[nilremerlin]

Another poorly-researched/-written article:

Broadband from airships: a lot of hot air?
By Matthew Miller, Executive Editor, Online -- EDN, 6/8/2006

STATS

* Operating altitude: as high as 70,000 ft
* Commercial deployments: zero

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, anticipated demand for Internet access ran so high that several companies sprang up with plans to launch high-flying airships that would blanket cities with wireless coverage. The reasoning was that, hovering at 60,000 ft or higher, flying machines could serve an entire metro area at lower cost than a satellite launch or new wired infrastructure.

Angel Technologies planned to use piloted, fixed-wing aircraft, which Scaled Composites built. (Scaled Composites later became famous for its SpaceShipOne.) Today, Angel's Web site, which remains untouched since 2001, stands as an artifact of the optimistic era. Now-defunct Skystation International, which former Secretary of State Alexander Haig headed, fared no better in its plan to use helium-filled dirigibles. Sanswire Networks has flown autonomous craft like the one in this photo but has yet to serve customers.

Rapid buildup of terrestrial wireless and wire-line networks closed a narrow launch window for these companies, says Craig Mathias, principal with Farpoint Group. "But it's still an intriguing idea," he says. "I'm sure somebody's going to try it." For example, a stratospheric platform might well suit use in delivering digital-TV channels or, given its immunity to terrestrial disasters, delivering emergency-communications services, he says.

http://www.edn.com/article/CA6339271.html?industryid=2282

nilremerlin