A revolutionary leap forward in scientific thinking could make unsightly mobile phone masts a thing of the past.

Telecommunications experts at the University of York are working on systems which could change the face of modern communications as we know it and avoid blighting the landscape.

The devices they are developing could be installed in airships, balloons or small aircraft, known as High Altitude Platforms or HAPs, which would fly higher than Concorde but be much closer to earth than satellites.

They might be powered by solar panels and could view wide areas offering better and cheaper communications than cellular phones or satellite systems.

Tim Tozer, leader of the communications research group at the University of York's electronics department, said: "This opens up vast new horizons. It has colossal potential, and indeed may be the only way we are going to fulfil all the demands for wireless services.

"High Altitude Platforms will be able to provide enhanced communications in highly developed regions where there is large demand, as well as structural services in areas where there may be little or no existing infrastructure."

Work on this new method has been driven by the explosion in demand for communications services such as mobile phones, the Internet and email. The researchers claim HAPs can deliver all these to both stationary and mobile users making existing ways of providing Internet access obsolete.

The devices would be so sophisticated that they could respond to user demands by, for example, directing their capacity over city centres during the working day and moving their antenna beams out to the suburbs in the evenings.

They could also be redirected if there is a sudden need for communications such as in the event of an earthquake or other major disaster.

The work at the University of York is being funded with a £475,000 European grant.

The university will collaborate with ten other European partners across Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Slovenia, Hungary and the UK.

York is planning to launch a spin-off company to exploit the huge potential this work has to offer.

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