In the Wall Street Journal Yesterday there was an interesting article about a network company Google may buy that makes wireless networks by sending up transceivers into the stratosphere via balloons. The company, Space Data Corp., releases 10 balloons a day in the southern U.S. to support telecom systems for truckers and oil companies. These ballons rise up about 65,000 to 100,000 feet, and each one is supposively able to cover the same range as 40 cell towers. They only last 24 hours, but they are very cheap produce and maintain. Google is most likely looking to buy the company to support a network that will run on the new 700 MHz spectrum just recently auctioned by the FCC. One of the more profitable markets for these balloons is rural areas of America where it costs a lot of money to build cables and cell towers for a very small user base. At a cost of $50 per balloon, $1500 per transceiver, and a $100 finder’s fee for recovered transceivers, It’s easy to see why there would be a preference over a $100,000 cell tower. These balloons essentially could act like the gatekeepers mentioned in Homework 2. In the future, They will provide a connection between a main network, like the internet, and small network such as a low populated rural area. It will be interesting to see if this idea catches on because I could lead to a large network that could potential expand anywhere at anytime.WSJ