Balloon Internet

High speed, broadband internet to rural areas. How many times have I seen articles, e-mails, conferences with people such as presidents Trump and Biden, secretaries of agriculture, and the list goes on. It’s a challenge.Getting high speed Internet to isolated rural areas can be very hard to do. Hills, valleys, mountains, long distances between homes and farms. These can make it almost impossible to run fiber there. And wireless also has its problems, so how can these rural places get high speed Internet? One possible answer. An 80 foot tethered balloon. A balloon. Yes. Dr. Johnny Park with an Indiana nonprofit group that promotes innovation told the House AG Committee that they are testing out Internet by balloon called an aerostat. And it’s approved by the FAA to fly 1500 feet in the air from a farm field in White County, Indiana. Tethered in one place by fibre cable. And it has a payload capacity of two hundred pounds that allows it to carry multiple wireless communication devices and at 1500 feet, no line of sight problems. And it can deliver high speed Internet within a 10 to 15 mile radius. Dr. Park says this is an unusual approach. It could be a way, though, to accelerate adoption of state of the art broadband in remote areas. And that's always our main goal.