Take a look at the company Sanswire, which is prototyping airships to deliver broadband as well as high definition tv. The goal is:
to build the nation’s first National Wireless Broadband Network utilizing high-altitude airships called “Stratellites†that will allow subscribers to access the Internet wirelessly from anywhere in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Not only will our subscribers have access, but any person with a wireless device that operates in the 802.11 protocol will be able to access the Internet at high-speed. The Stratellites will be positioned in the stratosphere, 65,000 feet (approx. 13 miles) high and provide a clear line-of-site platform for reaching an entire metropolitan area.
The airship is wing-shaped to be aerodynamic but also to create a very flat area on top so that it can be covered with paper-thin solar panels. The solar panels can power up to 800 pounds of communications hardware. Put aside the energy and chemical usage in producing the material, the airships sound like an environmentally friendly solution to our technologically hungry world.