Stratellites Change Ownership

from the let's-try-that-again... dept

Back in December of 2002 we first wrote about Sanswire's plans to launch "stratellites" - basically high altitude blimps that would float around for a year or so before needing to be replaced, offering wireless broadband connections. At the time, we wondered about the business model. These devices would be fairly expensive to build, launch and maintain - and it's questionable how much they could get in return. There were also some questions about whether or not this would run into spectrum issues. Since then, though, lots of other companies have jumped into the broadband blimp game with different names: there were aerostats and there were "HAPs" for "high altitude platforms" for example. The one thing all of these have in common, though, is that not much has come of them. Well, it appears that Sanswire has given up on the idea as well, as they've sold all of their assets to GlobeTel Communications. GlobeTel claims they're going to go ahead with the stratellite plan, but we'll believe it when we're surfing the web via one of these things - and not paying a ridiculous amount for the privilege.

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