Stratellite

The aptly named Sanswire is about to launch its first stratellite, a giant helium filled balloon that will hover at about 65,000 ft (13 miles) and provide broadband network connectivity to a 75 mile radius area below it (that's over 17,000 square miles), and line of site cellular and other connectivity to up to 300,000 square miles (about the size of Texas). Solar powered it maintains position via GPS and electric motors for up to 18 months before returning to terra firma for servicing. Sanswire are suggesting it will provide WiFi broadband connectivity to consumers via a special (I assume parabolic) antenna aimed at the stratellite - just like with a satellite dish.

The big advantage over conventional satellites is that for network access there is no 200ms or more latency introduced by the round trip. Also it is clearly going to be much, much cheaper than a satellite to build and operate. I remain skeptical about its abilities to remain stationary in the winds of the upper atmosphere. Although they can be high Sanswire points out its above the jetstream and that at 13 miles altitude the air is so thin its effective force is 20 times weaker than at ground level.

More info is available from the recent article in The Economist.