Mobile network operator EE to deploy blimps to provide wireless broadband

Mobile network operator EE has pressed into service a fleet of blimps to provide mobile phone and wireless broadband coverage to rural areas in the  UK.

According to EE, the fleet would allow remote communities to maintain voice and data services in the event of coverage loss due to natural disasters such as floods.

EE will launch it first ''helikite'' – a mobile broadcast site tethered to helium balloons – later this year and is also gearing up to deliver coverage via drones, although that project is not yet ready to be launched.

The balloons will allow beaming of a mobile signal into the area below, to allow communities to make calls and access the internet when the traditional mobile phone mast system went down or needed more capacity.

According to Marc Allera, the chief executive of EE, the balloons – and ultimately the drones – could also be used to boost coverage at major events and venues such as Glastonbury or Wembley Stadium, where mobile phone users often struggled to connect to networks.

''I see innovations like this revolutionising the way people connect,'' he said, The Guardian reported. ''In the future, why couldn't an event organiser request temporary EE capacity increase in a rural area. Or a climber going up Ben Nevis order EE aerial coverage to follow them as they climb?''

"Innovation is essential for us to go further than we've ever gone, and deliver a network that's more reliable than ever before," said Allera, BBC reported.

"Rural parts of the UK provide more challenges to mobile coverage than anywhere else, so we have to work harder there - developing these technologies will ultimately help our customers, even in the most hard to reach areas."

According to Kester Mann, analyst at CCS Insight, it was the first time this had been tried out in the UK.

"Everyone immediately thinks of disruptive players like Facebook and Google when it come to things like balloon-based networks. The traditional networks need to step up so they don't get left behind," he told the BBC.