Can high wi-fi boost space elevator?

Over at MSNBC.com, Alan Boyle talks about LiftPort’s being “in the midst of a two-month test to see if a balloon-based platform, moored to the ground, can serve as a reliable relay for Internet traffic in remote areas — serving “the guys that everybody else forgot,” said the company’s founder and president, Michael Laine.”  LiftPort says they have a customer for this technology already, LightSpeed Broadband, who want to use this in order to provide wireless Internet services for the Kitsap Peninsula in Washington.

Also in this article, LiftPort’s founder and president Michael Laine talks about the delays they’ve encountered in getting their nanotube factory up and running and a possible moving-back of their 2018 target date to get a space elevator operational.  I hope it doesn’t move back too far – I’ll be a senior citizen by then and I still see this as my best way of getting into space…