I never found out what happened to that. It was supposed to be able to
provide local services for about $US400-500 per subscriber, as opposed
to the cost of terrestrial of about $US800-1200.
Not sure about the figures, but the ratio between the two was about
right.
My guess is that they are still trying to work out how to keep them on
station- pretty tricky in the monsoon season.
I have also heard of proposals for helium balloons at the edge of the
atmosphere, sort a poor-man's versions of Bill Gates' 1200 satellites.
They were to just float around at random, the idea being that if you put
enough up, then statistically there would always be one where you wanted
it.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tonyb@netinfo.com.au [SMTP:tonyb@netinfo.com.au]
> Sent: Thursday, October 01, 1998 12:05 PM
> To: link@www.anu.edu.au
> Subject: JETSON-LIKE COMMUNICATIONS AIRCRAFT
>
> From Edupage, 24 September 1998
>
> JETSON-LIKE COMMUNICATIONS AIRCRAFT
> A new aircraft called High Altitude Long Operation-Proteus is designed
> to
> circle for hours some 50,000 feet high over major cities, functioning
> like a
> communications relay satellite does in space and carrying broadband
> wireless
> services, including high-speed Internet access and
> video-teleconferencing.
> A region might receive 24-hour service from a fleet of three planes,
> each
> flown by two-man crews on eight-hour shifts, with each aircraft flying
> fixed
> patterns providing coverage to an area 75 miles in diameter. Industry
> analyst Jeffrey Kagan says, "I knew it wouldn't be too long before the
> Jetsons became reality. In the next several years, you will see
> truckloads
> of methods for delivering high speed methods of data to homes and
> offices."
> (San Jose Mercury News 23 Sep 98)
>
> _________________________________________________________
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>
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