Weather balloons boost rural broadband

At last there could be a solution to the problem with rural broadband in the UK, and the way it could work is by using weather balloons that hover on the outer limits of the planets atmosphere where they will remain for just one day before collapsing.

Each balloon would have its own small transceiver which when it reaches the maximum height of 100,000 feet, will supply a signal over an area which is covered by around eighty phone masts. The company behind this scheme, Space Data has patented this service in over forty one countries so far and the UK could be considered as a potential market place.

Clearly the problem with this is the cost and the simple fact that the balloons only last one day, but there is also other problems for consideration like weather and what happens to those transceivers when they fall from the sky? The company has backing of around £36 million to develop this into a £5 billion market or so the company believes.

Story link: Weather balloons boost rural broadband