Extend America prepping balloon-based cell service for North Dakota

It's no "Stratellite", but Ed Schafer, former Governor of North Dakota, is betting on some hot air balloons to provide cellphone service to the vast wasteland expanse of his state, instead of the 1,100 cell towers it would take otherwise. The system only takes three balloons, 20 miles up, to provide coverage for the entire area, but since the balloons drift, it takes around 9 balloons total to keep service aloft at all times. Once a balloon floats out of state, it will eject its parachute-equipped communications pod, to be recovered for a bounty (similar to the SkySite program we just brought you) and sent back into service over the state. Extend America is about to start testing the tech, and if successful they plan to license their bandwidth to existing wireless carriers.

[Michael @ Jan 31st 2006 8:30AM]

Any word yet on which type of network they're going to use? Fingers crossed for GSM.

[Foxtrotnin3r @ Jan 31st 2006 9:00AM]

Bounty huh... I think Im gonna go camping at the Dakota state line :)

[Simon Powell @ Jan 31st 2006 9:09AM]

Why can't they just be tethered?

[Cory @ Nov 7th 2007 9:36PM]

having multiple 20 mile long ropes would be bothersome, not to mention the rope to hold them down would weigh literally a ton and would have to be supported by a balloon proabbly 100 times larger than the one they use now.

[Scott Culp @ Jan 31st 2006 9:26AM]

Funny.....post# 3, "tethered?"

Those were the exact words out of my mouth too.

[Finished.Law.School @ Jan 31st 2006 9:37AM]

Cows use cell phones?

[furtive @ Jan 31st 2006 10:10AM]

2 & 3>
Im guessing that a nine 20 mile cables stretched skyward would be a bit of a flight hazard for commercial jets.

[Glancing Aft @ Jan 31st 2006 10:11AM]

#3 & #4, well they are 20 miles up, that would be one hell of an anchoring system...

[Trey @ Jan 31st 2006 10:41AM]

Wait, if the balloons were 20 miles up, wouldn't they drift EXTREMELY rapidly (due to the jet stream and such)?

[Chris Michaels @ Jan 31st 2006 10:59AM]

i'm from North Dakota; the "wasteland" of which the article speaks is, in fact, rich farmland. one of the very nice things about the area is the fact that nobody lives there! we have virtually no crime, even in the cities; the air is clean, and the sky is huge. it is one of the most peaceful places on the earth.

[Andy @ Jan 31st 2006 11:23AM]

GSM? Come on, you should be hoping for EVDO, because if this don't do it, they won't get EVDO for a very long time...

As far as the wasteland is concerned, I was much happier with eternal brisk ND sunshine than eternal crappy OH cloud cover.

Does anyone happen to know who won that NDSU/Wisconsin Game?

[bjorn @ Jan 31st 2006 12:12PM]

From the AP article: "Schafer said the repeater could be used indefinitely 'unless it lands in a lake or gets run over by a truck.'" So what happens if it does land in a Minnesota lake? Isn't that tantamount to North Dakota littering on Minnesota?
Are they permanently sealed, so that mercury-containing electronics and batteries won't contaminate bodies of water? And as for being run over by a truck, what happens if the device strikes a truck, or a smaller passenger vehicle hits one on a road? How about utility lines, trees, buildings, and other man-made objects that might entangle or be damaged by the device? What happens to the remainder of the balloon after it bursts? I'm guessing that those big hunks of latex just float around the atmosphere and eventually sink to earth as, well, garbage.

I'm just not sure they thought this thing through. Canada will have a *fit*.

[havaloc @ Jan 31st 2006 12:43PM]

Wouldn't falling transmitters pose a hazard to commercial jets?

[lucas @ Jan 31st 2006 12:48PM]

i'm from northwestern ND...anything to improve service in the rural areas needs to be given a shot. some farmers and oilfield workers still use the old analog bag phones because they get better reception. and yeah, it's gorgeous here when it isn't 20 below zero...

[Alex Pacin @ Jan 31st 2006 12:51PM]

The chances of one of these balloons hitting someone have to be ridiculously small - - especially given the sparse population. Besides, I'd be surprized if you told me there's never been an accident involving a traditional cell tower. I certainly don't want one of those hitting my house either.

[TroyG @ Jan 31st 2006 1:29PM]

No way! You mean my cell phone might work when I go back to my parents house to visit! heh heh Some may find it amusing for a state that had pulse dialing in many parts in 1994, but now they have one of the fastest/cheapest cable modem infrastructures in the US, and nearly every school has fiber optic connectivity to the net. Not too bad of an improvement in 10 years or so.

[[Jesse] @ Jan 31st 2006 5:27PM]

"Welcome to WDAY, channel 6 news. A young man in Medora was struck dead today by a falling Extend America cell communications pod. In other news, Wahpeton might finaly be getting a Walmart Super Center, much to the delight of local resident, Jesse Stiller"

Seriously... we need a place to SHOP!

[wonko @ Jan 31st 2006 5:31PM]

why would someone bring it back. it would be a great thing to have a cell transmitter. fun to hack.

[BP @ Jan 31st 2006 7:17PM]

This sounds pretty stupid to me. That 1100 cel tower figure sounds like someone pulled that out of their ass too.

BP

[Dustin @ Jan 31st 2006 10:06PM]

I am from central North Dakota, although I am currently in Fargo for school, and I think that this would be great to finally have. I am not sure how well this will actually work, but I hope it does! And as for the 1100 number, come here and you might believe it.

[paul @ Feb 1st 2006 1:44AM]

I am from Grafton (north east ND) I agree, anything that can be done should b done.

[Dale @ Feb 22nd 2006 10:08AM]

The 1100 figure is probably an engineering estimate and is probably on track. A modern cell tower only gives you about 3 miles of coverage per tower. This is the mark for in building coverage. Outside you get line of sight coverage that is considerably larger, but if anything comes between you and the tower it goes from great to notta in a flash. So the benchmark in the industry is "in building" coverage, line of sight has to many variable to be reliable.

[Michael @ May 12th 2006 1:09AM]

GSM? Come on, you should be hoping for EVDO, because if this don't do it, they won't get EVDO for a very long time...

As far as the wasteland is concerned, I was much happier with eternal brisk ND sunshine than eternal crappy OH cloud cover.

Does anyone happen to know who won that NDSU/Wisconsin Game?



I disagree, I hoping they move on 3G GSM/GPRS/EDGE than 3G CDMA/1xRTT/EvDO. GSM 1900MHz will give more quality greater coverage and no lost call between towers like CDMA phones do and always on/stay connected their own line than mostly 850 in fewer 1900 in most major cities than rural areas.. GSM will work the best for both places plus more capability to use on other foregin networks as well..

[Ali @ Jun 27th 2006 8:04AM]

You are very stupid. This is a good technology that can change communication world.