Just when every conceivable type of transmission site on earth and in orbit seems to have been recruited for wireless telecommunications, the industry now is taking to the stratosphere with lighter-than-air platforms.
Sky Station International Inc. of Chantilly, Va., applied to the Federal Communications Commission last March for a license to operate a “Global Stratospheric Telecommunications Service” using airships hovering at 100,000 feet.
Closer to Earth, New York-based Skysat Communications Network Corp. wants to operate “Stratospheric Satellite Vehicles” at 70,000 feet to provide telecommunications services to developing regions.
Both systems are geostationary but use radically different propulsion technologies to maintain position.
Sky Station has a patent-pending “Corona Ion Engine” that uses, but doesn’t consume, naturally occurring charged particles, according to the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer Alex Haig.
“It has no moving parts, uses no fuel, doesn’t burn anything, makes no sound and doesn’t emit anything,” Haig said. Consequently, the planned fleet of about 250 airships can stay aloft for a 10-year lifespan, he added.
Haig said he expects the first prototype platform to cost between $35 million and $40 million but following platforms will come down to the $10 million to $15 million range.
Skysat, on the other hand, is trying to avoid technical risk by using off-the-shelf technology wherever possible, including conventional propeller-driven propulsion.
Two Skysat systems require five airships. Two would be operational and stay at altitude for about seven months, according to Tony Asterita, the company’s vice president of program development.
Two other airships would be kept on alert with another one on standby; all three of them on the ground and partially filled with helium.
Cost for a complete system-two-and-a-half airships plus ground infrastructure-would be about $20 million to $25 million, Asterita said.
Skysat has entered into an agreement with airship manufacturer Av-Intel Inc. to develop an SSV design.
Both Sky Station and Skysat plan to enjoy the same capacity and coverage footprint advantages as geostationary mobile satellite systems but without the cost and transmission delay problems that an orbital system might have operating at an altitude of 22,000 miles.
“Satellites are very expensive,” Asterita noted, while Haig said, “Our operating costs, construction costs and even insurance are significantly lower than geostationary satellites.”
“We’re offering a global broadband telecommunications service at 10 cents per minute compared to the announced satellite-based services of $1 to $3 per minute,” he added.
Skysat wants to keep costs low by using long-established Advanced Mobile Phone Service technology at 800 MHz; perhaps moving to digital Code Division Multiple Access technology at 2 GHz later, according to Asterita.
“We’ll be able to use off-the-shelf handsets and charge $50, or give them away for free, and 10 to 15 cents per minute for airtime,” he said.
Asterita said his company is negotiating with potential partners in Asia and Latin America. “The first system should be up next year about this time,” he said. “This is strictly a regional, low-cost service.”
Sky Station has grander ambitions.
Using CDMA technology, Haig said the company will offer a handheld picture phone with a one-inch color screen and camera, trackball and 64 kilobits per second transmission speed.
“The handset will not be cost prohibitive,” he said.
The company has applied to use the 47 GHz band.
“Nobody has used this band because it’s very sensitive to rain and moisture attenuation. But we can increase the power to punch through any attenuation problem, except maybe a hurricane,” he said.
Haig said he expects to have the first Sky Station platform tested, ready and licensed by 1999. It will then take three years to build and deploy the complete system.
