Tethered Balloon Planned For Service in Brazil
Call it a 3-mile-high cell tower.
A balloon tethered at 15,000 feet could one day hold the infrastructure for wireless telecommunications serving a 140-mile wide circle of land.
Platforms Wireless International of San Diego and Los Angeles is working on the technology with hopes of deploying it soon in Third World countries. The first installation could go into service this summer in Brazil.
The company demonstrated its 1,500-pound infrastructure unit for shareholders and invited guests last week at the Composite Optics, Inc. satellite testing facility in Rancho Bernardo.
Platforms Wireless plans to lift the unit with a tethered aerostat , a balloon resembling a blimp that has long been used for military applications. The federal government now uses aerostats to monitor the Mexican border.
Antennas created by San Diego-based Composite Optics are the key technological component to the wireless system, said Platforms Wireless International President Robert D. Perry, who works from an office in San Diego. Platforms Wireless is pursuing patents on its infrastructure inventions, Perry said.
The floating infrastructure unit will serve conventional wireless handsets, he said, adding the system will not require specialized handsets like the satellite-based Iridium and Globalstar systems.
Wireless customers will not notice any difference between using terrestrial and floating towers, Perry added.
Under the company scenario, the aerostat will sit at the end of a 3-mile-long tether, which will bring it electrical power and carry signals to the terrestrial network. Equipment will be enclosed in the belly of the 150-foot-long aerostat, which resembles a World War II barrage balloon.
The unmanned aerostat will stay aloft for up to 30 days, but will need to come down for servicing. Carriers might elect to do this in the middle of the night and interrupt service at a time of low demand, said a Platforms Wireless spokesman. Alternately, they could deploy an airplane that would circle with a backup infrastructure unit.
Or they could buy a backup aerostat.
Platforms Wireless officials said their conditional contract with the Brazilian carrier Americell, valued in excess of $300 million, calls for the Southern California company to provide five airborne systems in that country.
The initial deployment will cover an area between the capital city of Bras & #237;lia and the city of Goi & #225;s. The service will be active in June or July, said a company spokesman.
Worldwide Aeros of Canoga Park makes the aerostat to be used in Brazil, said Perry. There are several aerostat manufacturers in the United States and Europe.
Coverage will extend to areas where it does not make economic sense to deploy conventional infrastructure, said Perry. One rule of thumb holds that terrestrial infrastructure is only profitable when it serves communities of 50,000 people or more.
To illustrate, Perry placed two rubber bands on a conference table, about 12 inches apart. Imagine these are two communities of 50,000 people, he said. Now imagine there are smaller communities here and there in the region between them , little burgs with 5,000 or 10,000 people. All would be served within the 140-mile circle, he said.
Platforms Wireless publicists said their infrastructure unit will be able to serve up to 500,000 subscribers using various wireless protocols, from global system for mobile communications, to time division multiple access, to code division multiple access, also known as GSM, TDMA and CDMA.
Platforms Wireless has about 50 employees and has invested about four years in research and development on its system, Perry said. Its headquarters are Los Angeles, but it does R & D; work in San Diego, said a company publicist.
The company trades over the counter with the symbol PLFM.
