Frequently Asked Questions

Balloons at 80,000ft has coverage area of a little more than the size of New Jersey/Ghana>

The whole continent can be given full coverage with about a few hundred balloons. This is nothing when compared to 20,000+ cell towers needed by the mobile industry>

We monitor, the coverage area of each balloon from the NOC and since the wind speed is fairly consistent and predictable there is only a slow drift and we launch new balloons once we notice a gap in coverage, is about to happen. Also we can steer a balloon in a desire direction.

Number of NOC depends on demand pattern and spread of our subscribers. We intend to form a network mesh in the sky and some balloons will be relayers. This will reduce the need for many NOCs

We launch either from the East or West of Afric. We work within the jet stream in near space, if the wind current is eastbound we launch from the west. And we do the opposite if the wind current is westbound

We have actually initiated our interest to marry this technology to the OLPC (one laptop per child) initiative. And we are waiting on them to evaluate and respond back to us.

We have this idea that we can have donors or the unicef , pay for text books and we can beam it down to all the laptops.

Right now the government of many countries are reluctant to buy this laptops because they think them, to be little more than toys. But add the ability to connect them to updatable information source. And you have your self a new way of learning.

Telecommunication is not a cheap enterprise especially in Africa.

• First you need to shell out $200,000 http://tinyurl.com/myrwcs minimun to build a tall enough cell tower ( enough to buy 4,000 balloons - 6,000 with mass production. enough balloons for 11yrs daily launch of a single balloon)
• Secondly - Electricity infrastracture is very poor so cell towers need their own $5,000 power generators, that needs to be fueled and maintained. I will not go into the environmental impact of burning fossil fuel. Compare this with our rechargable batteries system.
• Thirdly - security personnel need to be posted to each cell tower to protect the generators. if the generators are stolen, so goes the service. 

Yes. We lower the cost on usage of telecommunications across Africa as well as reduce the upfront cost needed to sign up for service

We fill a balloon with hydrogen, attach electronic equipments to it and set it free to travel upwards at 1000 feets per minute till we stop it between 80,000-100,000 feet. 3times the zones of passenger aircraft.

We call this system a SkySite^® The patented technology can do anything a satelite can do, just at lower cost.

The Skysite network works by transmitting telemetry data from the balloon platforms to remote ground stations (RGS), then to the network operations center (NOC).

The Many Benefits

For the past four years, the oil and gas companies in the USA have been saving a lot of money using this technology.

Cheapest Solution The balloons that make up the SkySite network are launched from airport hangars every day at sunset, and take about an hour and a half to reach altitude in near space about 20 miles up — higher than airplanes fly, but lower than satellites. they last up there for about 24hrs and are parachuted down. Each unit mission cost just a few thousands of dollars, compared to a few hundred millions of dollars it cost to send a satelite to space. And satelites can fail without warning.

24/7 availabilty SkySites are sent up every evening or as needed this ensures there is no lapse in coverage. So availability is guaranteed. The system was used even against hurrican Katrina

Huge coverage Instead of building tens of thousands of cell towers and still getting no signal due to power outage a few hundreds of this balloon can provide full communication for the the whole of Africa. We must make the cost of using cell phones affordable for all.

“The Skysite is a new platform that can do anything a satellite network can do,“  Because they are far less expensive than erecting towers in remote areas or using satellite communications, the SkySite alternative can significantly reduce the cost of labor-intensive technology

For we bring the balloons back to earth for two reasons

1. Battery needs to be recharge and
2. Prevent them from drifting out of the coverage area

Payloads are assembled parts, so usually all parts do not fail at once. But on average, a payload should run for at least a few years.

Yes! The US military is presently using this technology in battefieds as a means of creating instant on demand communications.

Also technology is in use, in the southern states of the USA by oil and gas companies.

Our payloads fall into the weather instruments category. thousands of balloons are launched everyday and there has not been a single incident of a weather balloon crashing into a plane.

We use hydrogen gas, it is lighter than air, so it makes the balloons to float upward. it is also relatively cheap, easy to store and safe to use.