I've been reading about the imminent bandwidth-in-the-sky offerings for years: Here's the latest in a series of mostly unrelated test showing that you can float a balloon (or fly a plane or put a drone up) that can offer unparalleled line of sight. Yes, the pun is intended. The balloon noted in this BBC report was put in air to 24 kilometers for nine hours and maintained an 11 Mbps link. The goal is 120 Mbps. The area of coverage could be up to 60 square kilometers.
Of course, the last line reminds me of a story from an Irish paper the other day that stated that 50 mobile WiMax base stations could serve all of Ireland. The line in this story: With each airship being able to support an area of 60 kilometres, there would only need to be "a handful" to offer complete coverage in the UK, he added. Right--and only 120 Mbps per balloon--so a handful would provide service for dozens to hundreds of people nationwide. Hardly.