World Surveillance Group Inc (fka WSGI)

[falon]

"Stratellite" Broadband

http://www.hardavenue.com/reviews/futurebroadband4.shtml

Just when you think you've heard of every possible way to get your broadband Internet, someone comes out with a concept labeled "Stratellite". Like Satellite technology, the concept of Stratellite Internet evolves around a broadband station in the sky with huge coverage capabilities, however unlike a Satellite, which is placed in orbit, a Stratellite in placed in the earth's Stratosphere, 13 miles above ground.

To put the potential of Stratellite in perspective, imagine if Satellite Internet was somehow, defying the laws of physics, incredibly responsive, in the range of 20-50ms in latency. Obviously, you'd have the ultimate broadband solution on your hands - fast, responsive and as close to complete coverage as you'll ever get. Well, unfortunately Satellite will never become this, but something else might, and that something else is Stratellite.

Since the "air ship" as it is called is only located 13 miles above ground, the distance for the data to travel is much shorter than with Satellite, so in theory the latency is comparable to existing ground level broadband solutions. On top of this, whilst the coverage is obviously not at the same level as Satellite's due to its much lower altitude, it has been suggested that only 12 Stratellite air ships could one day be needed to cover the entire United States - metro, rural, heck even remote. This means that everyone who can see the sky above them could have complete access; the pipe dream of the broadband industry?

Like FTTH, a Stratellite is anticipated to be able to deliver a variety of services including broadband Internet, HDTV, telephone as well as 3G/4G mobile phone services. The actual technology used to deliver much of this however is a mystery, with even WiMax only being able to deliver 70Mbps in total bandwidth, one has to wonder just how, exactly, it is planned a Stratellite will be able to give potentially millions of people high speed broadband and high bandwidth HDTV at the same time, not to mention how it plans on connecting to existing networks such as an Internet backbone or a mobile phone network with a fast enough link. Nevertheless, this is a serious technology that could prove to be the sleeper out of the draft class.

Once again the lack of concrete information is the only problem stopping the Stratellite concept from becoming the clear leader for tomorrow's broadband. It is hard to tell at this point how economical it will be maintaining such a hard to reach beast. Sanswire, who are the leading force behind Stratellite's, suggest each air ship is designed to stay in its exact location for 12 months, after which it will then be replaced by another air ship. Whilst it is true this may be more of a hassle than Satellites, which typically last in orbit much longer, the ability to directly manage a Stratellite gives it a huge advantage for upgrades and repairs, but only time will tell just how viable it is having such a small life span. At this point in time, the cost of each air ship is also uncertain, but one could only presume its costs will far outweigh that of a wireless base station, which could one day deliver the same services and coverage.

The final word on Stratellite: Probably the most "far out there" concept in this roundup, Stratellite is actually much closer to reality than what you may think, Sanswire insist they will extensively trial a real air ship in January 2005 after a successful demonstration of the technology already completed in 2004. This is a promising technology that could combine the best of Satellite and wired Internet - fast, low latency and hugely widespread, atleast in theory. Whilst it is still unclear how exactly a floating broadband hub could haul its data back down to earth wirelessly with acceptable bandwidth keeping in mind its potential ability to serve millions of people at a time, rest assured this is a prime candidate for tomorrow's broadband world. Whether or not it will get the industry support required however is yet to be seen.