By Pamela Perez, CommsDay

UK/Malaysian firm Stratospheric Airship Technologies says it will invest US$500 million to build solar-powered commercial airships in Subic Bay Freeport, Philippines, that will carry broadband and telecommunications equipment, reported the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

SAT managing director Bryn Lloyd Williams, who signed the agreement with SBMA Administrator Armand Arrez, said the high-altitude unmanned airships would provide communications links covering the entire country- a new trend that has promising prospects in view of the telecommunications industry’s rapid growth.

SAT is targeting mobile phone firm Smart Communications and Globe Telecom as potential clients.

“We’re talking to Globe and Smart and they have expressed a high level of interest to augment their land-based and satellite systems,” Williams revealed.

“The key technological advantage here is that we don’t need the ground infrastructure which is too costly and sometimes, very difficult to install. In some places, it gets stoned or vandalized, and weather conditions interfere with its performance,” Williams said.

A 10-hectare property at the Subic Bay International Airport has been allocated for SAT, said SBMA adding that the space is currently being used by Federal Express as a hub for its Asian operations, but FedEx will be transferring its Asian hub to Guangzhou, China, by the end of the year.

During their 15-year life span, the airships would operate at a height of 65,000-70,000 feet- high above the clouds and air movement and will be brought down once every five years for repairs.

“When the SAT project pushes through, we will see Subic as a high-tech manufacturing center, and this fits very well with what we are trying to do. Our objective is to really expand development in the Subic Freeport and the surrounding regions. With the opening of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway, we hope to have more manufacturing jobs move along the expressway,” Arreza said.

Little is known about SAT except it claims to have minority Malaysian government investment and has previously attempted to get similar projects off the ground in Wales and South Africa. The company first started talking about its plans in 2004.