UltraTek, a Torrance, Calif.-based telecommunications equipment research company, has filed patent applications for a global wireless telecommunications system that would turn commercial airplanes into flying cell sites.
The company has proposed a system that initially would make use of airplanes flying between North America and the Asia-Pacific to transmit wireless signals. The airplanes, said UltraTek, would act as low-flying satellites and transmit signals using transmitters and receivers placed on commercial airliners.
The signals can be transmitted from the ground to airplanes as well as from airplane to airplane, said the company.
One or more airplane fleets would be used to create and maintain transmission chains, said the company. Signal coordination would be managed and coordinated by computers located at hub cities and on-board airline links.
Joseph Lai, UltraTek president, said the two main advantages of such a system would be to add a new element of competition to the trans-oceanic communications market for both voice and data communications and to provide substantial cost savings to consumers.
Both the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Aviation Administration would have to approve such a system, said Lai. UltraTek said it plans to license the technology to telephone carriers, equipment manufacturers, aircraft manufacturers and commercial airline carriers.
Other reports of proposed cellular relay systems using airplanes have surfaced in the last couple of months.
Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine recently reported that a Redlands, Calif., company has demonstrated the use of high-altitude aircraft acting as cellular telephone relay nodes over southern California.
The magazine reported that if negotiations between Platforms International Corp. and its partners result in a firm contract, Platforms could deliver an Airborne Relay Communications System to Telesp in Sao Paulo, Brazil, next September.
Initially, two aircraft orbiting high above the city would provide 24-hour cellular phone service to approximately 200,000 customers, according to the Aviation Week & Space Technology report.
