Space Data Corp is getting a lot of press about its plan to provide specialized telecom services to truckers and oil companies via balloons. The Wall Street Journal has a good video (below), explaining how it works.
The article says Google is interested in using the technology, even buying the company. The Air Force conducted a series of tests using Space Data balloons to extend voice communications from 10 miles to over 400 miles for troops on the ground.
Space Data has available 2 MHz of the 3 MHz allocated to Narrowband PCS, part of the FCC’s licensed 900 MHz band. The balloons rise about 1,000 feet a minute and reach their target altitude of 65,000 to 100,000 feet in under two hours. They stay aloft for about 24 hours, then the $1,500 transceivers are retrieved by scouts who are paid $100 for each one.
Full Spectrum of Menlo Park CA, hopes to utilize Space Data’s spectrum for delivery of 1-2 Mbps WiMAX services (left) to targeted industries such as rural utilities. Space Data also has 20 MHz of additional spectrum in the Gulf of Mexico and Northern Alaska in the AWS spectrum band from Auction 66. A couple of 1-2 Mhz chunks are also available in the 700MHz band.
Tillamook, Oregon-based Near Space Corporation is the largest supplier of super-pressure balloons. Their WindStar technology promises extremely long duration flights with flight durations “as long as a year”.
NASA’s Low Cost Access to Near-Space (speaker list) has additional information. Edge of Space Sciences (EOSS) is a Denver, Colorado based non-profit organization that promotes science and education by exploring frontiers in amateur radio and high altitude balloons (FAQ and audio interview).
But moving balloons may be a poor platform for any type of permanent voice network. Store and forward data relay would likely be a more appropriate use of the technology.
Other Machine 2 Machine wireless services are offered by Aeris, Jasper Wireless, KORE Telematics, Orange Business Services, Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions, Rogers Wireless, Sprint-Nextel, and Wyless using cellular networks. At this year’s Superbowl, a KORE-powered GPS vehicle tracking application remotely tracked the movement of team buses throughout the week.
Perhaps a small transceiver package on a fleet of light FedEX planes (or commercial jets) might also relay remote data — without the balloons.
ABI Research expects that the installed base of cellular Machine 2 Machine subscribers will rise from approximately 27 million in 2006 to roughly 128 million in 2012. Remote Magazine, M2M Magazine and Telematics Journal cover the field.
