Who Needs Satellites – when you can have "Stratellites"
Not quite out of this world, The Economist
“Next month Sanswire Networks, a company based in Atlanta, Georgia, is planning to launch the first airship satellite, or stratellite. Floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20km (13 miles), the airship will behave just like a geostationary satellite, hovering over a particular spot and relaying radio signals to and from the ground. Such airships will, however, be much cheaper to launch and maintain than satellitesand can do things that satellites cannot.”