Balloon beaming broadband bonanza

Hugely interesting article in New Scientist which was pointed out to me by one the Global Ideas Bank's most prolific idea submitters/social inventors David Morgan. Basically, it involves using a stratospheric balloon to provide what is allegedly "blisteringly fast data downlink" from 24,000 feet to places on the ground. The uses of this are potentially massive: think of the ways in which bypassing that infrastructure could be used to connect up isolated communities, areas suffering from a recent disaster, explorers and mountaineers and countless other parties. They've already tested it in the Arctic. Interesting stuff: so read the full article here