Coming Next: Hotzones

Space.... This unlimited three-dimensional expanse has gained popularity over

a couple of decades now, thanks to the sci-fi series Star Trek. The dark and

alien stretches of the vast universe traversed by Captain Kirk and his

Enterprise crew has been the business domain of the communications-satellite

industry, so far. This, however, may change soon if Richard Branson has his way.

On June 21, 2004, Mike Melvill became the first civilian to pilot a craft

into space. Built by Burt Rutan and financed by Paul Allen, SpaceShipOne has

already made history as the first manned, private spaceship. Virgin Galactic, a

foray in to space tourism by the charismatic Richard Branson's of Virgin

Atlantics, has licensed Rutan's technology and has £800million ($1.5

billion)-worth of ticket reservations, though flights will not commence until

2007.

The issue here, however, is not space invasion by the likes of Rutan and

Branson but Stratellite. The communication-satellite industry might see some

action, thanks to the 'Stratellite', a similar-to-a-satellite concept but

technologically a far-advanced platform for wireless communication.

Following the successful test of a wireless communications capabilities of

the Stratellite earlier this month, the US-based Sanswire Technologies plans to

launch this high-altitude airship into the stratosphere by the end of January

2005. The Stratellite will be positioned at an altitude of just under 12 miles

above the earth's surface. Each Stratellite is designed to stay in one

location for up to 12 months. Post 12-months, it would be replaced by a

duplicate Stratellite, allowing the original airship to be brought back to earth

for servicing and communication upgrades. The replacement would be a seamless

exchange preventing outages to subscribers.

Each Stratellite, approximately 200 feet in length, will have a payload

capacity of thousands of pounds and be powered by a series of solar powered

hybrid electric motors and other regenerative fuel cell technologies. Compared

to traditional satellites, such airships will, however, be much cheaper to

launch and maintain. According to web sources, it costs around $7,500 for every

kilogram of satellite payload being launched in the lower orbit of the earth.

For a typical satellite, this amounts to at least $40 million in cost. With a

lifetime of five to seven years, satellites are required to be decommissioned

and placed in a junk year. Stratellites, on the other hand, will cost about $20

million each. In addition to the cost advantage, Stratellites can also be

reused. So after 12-14 months on an average, these communication airships can be

recovered, serviced and readied for relaunch.

Like satellites, these airships will be able to provide wide-area

mobile-telephone coverage, paging and other communications services. Analysts

are excited at the prospect of being able to provide wireless broadband

coverage, akin to Wi-Fi, over large areas. A single airship has the potential to

provide coverage over an area of nearly 800,000 square kilometers. Forget Wi-Fi

'hotspots', think 'hotzones'. Link a few and have a huge footprint

across the country. Welcome to the next phase of the wireless broadband

revolution.

Team DQ