Floating towers soon may give some rural North Dakotans better wireless voice and data coverage.
Next month, Chandler, Ariz.-based Space Data Corp. is set to trial its latex communications balloons with Extend America, a North Dakota fixed broadband provider and Sprint Nextel Corp. iDEN affiliate. The companies are exploring the commercial possibilities of using SkySite helium-filled balloons equipped with wireless repeaters to provide wireless communications coverage across vast rural areas of North Dakota.
“Coverage is everything in North Dakota,” said Greg Rhode, chief operating officer of Extend America as well as founder and president of e-Copernicus, a consulting firm that specializes in rural wireless issues.
Traditionally, carriers have not sought to provide ubiquitous coverage to largely rural areas in western states because potential revenues have far outweighed the infrastructure investment it would take to serve a handful of customers. In North Dakota, Space Data noted that it would take more than 1,000 towers to cover the state with wireless service. The same ubiquitous service could be provided with just 15 communications balloons, according to Space Data, which added that the financial difference was between spending $150 million for towers, or $10 million for SkySite balloons.
“This trial is being closely watched by a lot of people in North Dakota because we have so many dead spots across our state,” said Rhode. “It’s a big pubic-safety issue, too. Our police and firefighters need better communications tools. And in 2008, we’re going to have a whole lot of people out of service because their analog service won’t be available anymore.”
Indeed, the federal government has said it plans to allow carriers to shut down analog networks in 2008, which could leave about 42 million analog subscribers without any type of wireless service.
“This could be huge for solving the rural puzzle,” said Rhode.
Indeed, the upcoming trial with Extend America could lead to big things. If the trial goes well, Extend America likely will look beyond the big skies of North Dakota to set up a ubiquitous network across the rural expanses of several other western states, including South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado.
Space Data’s balloons also could provide an alternative for air-to-ground communications.
In December, the Federal Communications Commission approved Space Data’s technology for use in ATG communications, clearing the way for the company to compete in both the ATG spectrum auction and the ATG services market.
“From the 100,000-foot vantage point of our SkySite platforms, a 757 or A320 full of passengers at 30,000 feet looks more or less like a bus full of passengers on the ground,” said Jerry Knoblach, chief executive of Space Data. “Our SkySite technology can provide airline passengers with a wider range of communications options than they have today.”
Space Data’s balloons are sent up to near space-the space between 12 miles and 62 miles above sea level-which is above where airplanes fly, but below where satellites are stationed. Once in place, the balloons expand traditional line-of-sight radio communications from about 10 miles to more than 400 miles of coverage.
From the ground, the balloons cannot be seen except during launches and retrievals. The balloons travel predictably with stratospheric winds at about 30 miles per hour, delivering service for hundreds of miles. Battery power is limited to about 10 hours, at which time the balloons are remotely directed to parachute back to land, where they can be located via global positioning system technology. For the most part, the balloons and their radio equipment can be re-used indefinitely unless damaged during landings-if a balloon lands in a lake or river, there is not much hope for saving the radio equipment.
But Space Data says problems with wayward balloons are minimal.
“Our technicians have performed more than 6,500 balloon launches-they’re getting good at it,” joked Knoblach. “This is a well-proven technology. We have been working with oil-and-gas companies in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico for the last year, as well as border-patrol agencies in the southwest. We’ve also done some work with the military.”
Indeed, after conducting trials with the military last year, Space Data won a $1.4 million contract to participate in the Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment, a war-game-like event scheduled for April to be hosted by the Air Force Joint Chief of Staff.
Knoblach said he expects to have launched a statewide network by the end of this year.
Rhode said the trial will be up and running within weeks.
