2y ago

Japanese telecom NTT, suggests high-altitude solar-powered drones could be 5G base stations in Africa. With coverage of 200 sq km per drone, approx 150,000 of them could blanket the continent with 5G

interestingengineering.com

Japan to dispatch solar-powered, flying 5G mobile base station in 2025

17 comments

Why not just use blimps?
- Not sure you can have a solar powered blimp. It would rely on helium if hydrogen to float which would mean resupplying it on a regular basis as it will never be completely sealed and always have some slow gas losses over time.
  Unless you can somehow have a lightweight solar powered hydrogen producing machine which splits water taken from the air.
  
  That's what first came to my mind. Water from air to hydrogen from water. Would need to do r&d tho to see if it's possible.
There is no word on pricing, but I wonder how much each drone might cost? They don't look particularly complicated. Even if each of them cost $100,000, that would provide blanket 5G coverage to all of Africa for $15 billion. For context, the total 2024 telecoms spending in Africa is expected to be $63 billion.
- I haven't read about this, but I suspect this is going to be more useful for low population density areas. There is usually a connection cap that will be far too low for any kind of urban use. That's okay, though. It's usually easier and cheaper per user to have ground-based installations in an urban setting. This could be a great option to extend coverage in rural zones.
  
  Same for Starlink. There’s only so much bandwidth even a very modern antenna can have. And something flying is going to be power-limited as well.
  
  Same for Starlink. There's only so much bandwidth even a very modern antenna can have. And something flying is going to be power-limited as well.
- It sounds like a Starlink satellite costs more than a million dollars, so that’s a pretty good deal if so. I wonder why this isn’t a thing already?
- It sounds like a Starlink satellite costs more than a million dollars, so that's a pretty good deal if so. I wonder why this isn't a thing already?
Facebook tried something similar: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Aquila
- Project Loon, too. The idea isn’t new, and I kind of wonder why it’s more viable now.
  
  Lower solar/battery costs?
- Project Loon, too. The idea isn't new, and I kind of wonder why it's more viable now.
Random comma, hits brain like slap to face.

17 comments