SkyTower Aims High for 3G Broadcasts

date: July 23, 2002 - source: BWCS

Californian-based SkyTower Inc reports that it has successfully completed a series of commercial telecoms test from 65,000 feet above Japan. The company, which has been working in collaboration with NASA and the Japanese Ministry of Telecommunications, argues that its solar-powered high-flying planes offer a much cheaper alternative to broadcasting broadband video and data applications than conventional methods. The latest test saw it send out several hours of next-generation mobile voice, data, and video services to what it described as “multiple handheld user devices” on the ground.

The 3G tests used an ordinary NTT DoCoMo handset and trialled internet surfing from a wireless modem-equipped laptop at data speeds of up to 384 kbps. According to Stuart Hindle, vice president of strategy and business development at SkyTower, "The airborne platform, operating above the weather and commercial air traffic, is equivalent to a 12-mile-tall tower, which means significant advantages to telecom service providers and broadcasters."

The company claims that as it broadcasts from “on-high” it can fill in "urban canyons" - coverage areas which are not so easily reached by terrestrial and satellite broadcast transmissions. Further, SkyTower points out that its system requires much less power to beam the signals down as they do not have to overcome so many obstructions. The SkyTower platform connects users within its footprint of 30 to 600 miles in diameter to a gateway station on the ground tied into a fibre-trunk network.

SkyTower was set up by its US parent company AeroVironment two years ago to pursue commercial telecom access advantages using solar-electric aircraft technology. A consortium of Japanese manufacturers including NEC and Toshiba developed the communication systems used in the recent trial of IMT-2000 systems.

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