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It would be difficult to build a terrestrial mesh network of appreciable power even while plugged in to the wall for $5-10 per node, let alone one on a balloon

It would be difficult to build a terrestrial mesh network of appreciable power even while plugged in to the wall for $5-10 per node, let alone one on a balloon in the stratosphere with no source of power, etc. The helium alone is over $2.50 per cubic meter (according to[1], others might know better, and maybe you could use hydrogen, but then there's problems with leakage and how long your balloon stays up). The balloons also work much better in places with no power nearby, or with such spread out infrastructure that you'll need much longer line of site than anything on the ground can provide. But! Grassroots mesh networking is still very possible, and very important, especially as an internet alternative in places where internet access has been censored or shut down (or even just cell access has been shut down...which happens more than it should here in the US). For anyone interested, the EFF just put out a plea for helping invalidate some bullshit patents on mesh networking to ensure that grassroot efforts to actually help people can move forward. More here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-overbroad-patents-bad https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-o... Edit: just submitted the EFF story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5924690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5924690 weird that it hasn't been submitted before. I feel a bit like advocacy on HN has about the same motivations as what makes the top stories on crappy tech blogs these days... [1] http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-2012-heliu.pdf http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/helium/mcs-...

fouc 13y ago
If the mesh routers were cheap enough it would just come down to making lots of them and distributing them all over your local area. As a result, they wouldn't need to be that powerful. Attaching them to balloons is somewhat optional. Perhaps even better, hand them out for free to neighbours that can plug them in as well. Linksys WRT54G from 2004-2005 used to be $60-70, and powerful enough to be flashed with better firmware. It's almost 10 years later (and sadly wrt54g has been heavily watered down). Perhaps we need a kickstarter to get cheap mesh network routers using 2004 tech, get costs down to $5/router somehow.

fouc 13y ago

If the mesh routers were cheap enough it would just come down to making lots of them and distributing them all over your local area. As a result, they wouldn't need to be that powerful. Attaching them to balloons is somewhat optional. Perhaps even better, hand them out for free to neighbours that can plug them in as well. Linksys WRT54G from 2004-2005 used to be $60-70, and powerful enough to be flashed with better firmware. It's almost 10 years later (and sadly wrt54g has been heavily watered down). Perhaps we need a kickstarter to get cheap mesh network routers using 2004 tech, get costs down to $5/router somehow.