AIRSHIP-BASED TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE OFFERED
Platforms Wireless International has targeted 2002 for rollout of project that uses tethered, helium-filled airships as flexible, floating platforms for wireless phone and Internet services in emerging nations. COO Robert Perry told us company successfully demonstrated technology in Southern Cal. last spring and was negotiating with telecom companies in Indonesia and Africa, as well as Central and S. America. He anticipates having $25 million ARC (Airborne Relay Communications) system up and running in at least one country by March or April.
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While undoubtedly looking to make profit, Perry said: “The major thrust of this is to be able to give emerging countries the chance to improve their society by having telecommunications that they wouldn’t normally get because the infrastructure is not there.” ARC system can be deployed for about half cost of ground-based tower infrastructure for wireless, he said.
Perry said ARC wasn’t standalone telecom network because system needed to be connected via microwave, fiber or copper wire to preexisting PSTN (Public Service Telephone Network) that did actual switching: “We can only do what the operator is already doing, but what we can do is move him out into more rural areas without all the infrastructure build-out. And we can do it faster and less expensively.”
Platforms Wireless uses same helium-filled aerostats from commercial manufacturer that already are being used in projects such as joint Drug Enforcement Agency, Immigration & Nationalization Service and Customs effort to monitor U.S.- Mexican border. “Zeppelin-like” 150-ft. long aerostats are designed to maintain their position in winds up to 70 mph and stay up for 45 days at time before they need to come down for several hours of maintenance and helium refills. Platforms Wireless warrantees aerostat for 10 years and says original $25 million investment by telecom could return $214 million profit during that time.
Deployed at 15,000 ft. above sea level, aerostat and 1,500 lb. telecom payload can cover 140 mile footprint, handling 125,000 simultaneous calls in GSM, CDMA and TDMA, company said. “That doesn’t do a lot for someone looking to handle a few million subscribers,” Perry conceded. “We're not all things to every operator. But we do fulfill a specific need in allowing the operator -- at a lesser cost and faster build-out time with better security control -- to have a 140 mile footprint that would typically take him 75 bay stations to accommodate.”
Payload consists of off-shelf products such as high- powered amplifiers and antennas, along with some proprietary technology such as “downward looking” antennas to connect to hardware on ground. One advantage is that, unlike satellites or even bay stations in remote locations, tethered aerostats can be retrieved quickly. “The technology on the aerostat is such that we can take it down and update it with whatever new modifications are taking place in the telecommunications industry,” Perry said.
While events of Sept. 11 have triggered discussions in U.S. about need for replacement telecom infrastructure in event of natural or man-made disasters, Perry said company, based in L.A. and Houston, probably wouldn’t be looking at N. American market any time soon. For one thing, at 10,000- 15,000 ft. aerostat would be potential hazard for air traffic in crowded areas, which would make approval process difficult if not impossible in U.S. “What we're doing now is the path of least resistance,” Perry said. “The less developed the country, the more eager they are to incorporate out technology and they typically have less air traffic.”
Publicly traded Platforms Wireless began in Okla. in 1992 as Flight Dynamics. In recent years it has been involved in many businesses, including attempt to build economical 6-seat jet aircraft. Another project, now shelved, involved buying 3 Russian TU-160 long range bombers from Ukraine, demilitarizing them and using them to compete with Orbital Science in high-altitude horizontal satellite launch market.
While it currently is offering turnkey solution that includes hardware and aerostat for lower altitude projects, Perry said one of company’s long-term goals was to position itself as potential payload company for high-altitude (70,000 ft.) platforms using liquid helium currently being studied for their telecom potential by Japan, Korea, Taiwan, European Space Agency.