LTE from "Towers" 60,000 Feet in the Air?

Long Term Evolution was developed as an air interface for mobile service. In a new twist, those LTE signals might use a new system of "towers" provided by a commercialized Project Loon constellation of balloons.

As currently envisioned, the system of free floating but somewhat steerable balloons would relay signals from mobile service provider cell sites, using Long Term Evolution 4G signals, directly to and from end user LTE mobile devices.

That potential development has market share implications for Internet service providers, as new fleets of low earth orbit satellites are expected to begin launching in a couple to several years, creating a high-bandwidth new infrastructure to support Internet access for customers living in hard to reach places, who frequently also cannot afford to spend very much to use the service.

In a novel twist, the balloon-delivered signals will use LTE air interfaces, meaning no traditional ground stations are required.

The balloons transmit in the the 2.2 GHz and 2.6 GHz LTE bands used in  those bands the United States, Europe and Asia, with expected new tests of the additional 700-MHz frequencies that will allow coverage from any single balloon to increase from about 40 kilometers to perhaps 160 kilometers.

The wholesale model now envisioned for any future Project Loon commercial service, making it an extension of mobile operator core infrastructure, is why mobile operators in New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Argentina have happened.

Crossing the earth at an altitude of around 60,000 feet, Project Loon is perhaps the best example of the “mesh style” also favored by new proposed fleets of low earth orbit satellite constellations.

Project Loon now appears to be a way for mobile satellite operators to extend mobile Internet access across both southern and northern hemispheres at lower cost than would have been the case using traditional macro cell sites.

And that makes Project Loon a tool for mobile operators to add hundreds of millions of new users before the new LEO constellations begin to launch.