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If you look at the practicality of such as scheme it starts to look a bit ambitious. At 60,000 ft the coverage would be at least 200 km. Still requiring hundreds of balloons to give good coverage. You would need a special transponder on the ground (I bet Google would know how to charge for that)
The transponder and power unit could be mass produced quite cheaply. Even a suitable ballon would not be prohibitively expensive. The balloon would be charged with hydrogen to a level that would give neutral boyancy at 60,000 feet.
However the hydrogen molecules would slowly migrate through the fabric of the balloon requiring a supply of hydrogen to re-charge the system to keep it in orbit and in any case eventually the ballon will return slowly to earth (unless it bursts due to many causes), what fun!. (Wear your hard hats at all times)
Barry
PS I don't think it will ever happen past the experimental stage.
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