Stratospheric Airship

With sporting and other big gatherings the mobile reception usually deteriorates to a failure. communication for the media on fixed lines are also tested to the limit.

In 2004 we had a record attempt for the number of vintage tractors in the country side. the one tower could not handle the need.

A portable station that can be deployed where it is needed therefore makes good sense.

In SA we have been using smaller units for roving cameras.

Couldn't find anything on this by the Zeppelin company: http://www.zeppelin-nt.com/index.htm. I think they would be the one to do this. All of the articles on the Zeppelin-NT (New Technology) point to its use as a research platform rather than a communcations platform. The NT is only 75 m in length so is likely not what you are thinking about.

Another search revealed this site: http://spot.colorado.edu/~dziadeck/airship/india.htm which talks about the use of an airship as a telecommunications platform. Check out the announcements and other links listed on this site for more information about lighter-than-air (LTA) aircraft and their various uses.

Most mobile phone providers in the US have the ability to deploy cell-site-on-wheels (COW) at sporting events, for disasters, etc. These work just like a regular cell tower, except they are self contained units in a truck.

In all likelihood, an airship would only be part of the solution here. First of all, the range of the cell phone limits the distance to the tower. The airship would have to fly/hover somewhere under 5000 m. That should not be a problem, but airspace management could be complicated by the presence of one or more of these beasts. Secondly, there is the problem of back haul. After your call goes from the mobile device to the tower, it goes in to a land line of some sort for back haul to a data network or telephone system. Some sort of connection would have to be provided on the airship for this.

I think what you will see at the Olympics is the deployment of several COW at strategic locations to handle the increase in traffic with some sort of radio link/microwave back haul that may go over traditional land line or perhaps over something hovering overhead in an airship.