this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024

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Futurology

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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 10 months ago by Lugh to c/futurology

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[–] CanadaPlus 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Project Loon, too. The idea isn’t new, and I kind of wonder why it’s more viable now.

[–] Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Lower solar/battery costs?

[–] CanadaPlus 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I doubt that's the most (financially) expensive component in any of these cases. Making stuff fly is pricey, and maintaining high-bandwidth radio connections can be too.