Futurology

3007 readers

86 users here now

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Japanese telecom NTT, suggests high-altitude solar-powered drones could be 5G base stations in Africa. With coverage of 200 sq km per drone, approx 150,000 of them could blanket the continent with 5G (interestingengineering.com)

submitted 2 years ago by Lugh to c/futurology

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Lugh 6 points 2 years ago (5 children)

There is no word on pricing, but I wonder how much each drone might cost? They don't look particularly complicated. Even if each of them cost $100,000, that would provide blanket 5G coverage to all of Africa for $15 billion. For context, the total 2024 telecoms spending in Africa is expected to be $63 billion.

[–] CanadaPlus 1 points 2 years ago

It sounds like a Starlink satellite costs more than a million dollars, so that’s a pretty good deal if so. I wonder why this isn’t a thing already?

load more comments (4 replies)