Why doesn't satellite communication replace this? Except for the annoying time delay, (see below for option) seems like an obvious choice.
Navigation-Related Services over Stratospheric Platforms Abstract. High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) have been given much attention recently as a promising approach for efficient provision of communication, surveillance and navigational services. When flying in the stratosphere at an altitude of 17 km or higher, they have certain advantages and fill the gap between terrestrial transmitters on one hand and satellite-based system on the other. In this paper we describe navigational and navigation-related services that could be provided by HAPs. This work has been done in the framework of the European project HeliNet, which was concerned with developing a network of unmanned, long endurance solar powered aircraft for providing the above services.