This is a great “low tech” idea.  A company is planning to cover the entire state of North Dakota with cell repeaters mounted to balloons drifting 20 miles in the air.

It’s really not about North Dakota, but about developing countries. If it works, it would take very little money, and very little technology to actually wirelessly “wire” a huge area and a huge population.

Cell access brings cheap (but admittedly slow) internet access. Tack on the $100 laptop, and you’re revolutionizing the developing world.