Patent ID: 7783734

Claim:
In a system for providing communication services between geographically dispersed source and destination terminals, an apparatus comprising: at least one airborne or spaceborne and movable wireless communications device, wherein the wireless communications device is configured to store and forward large data files of at least an aggregated 10 gigabytes, and includes: a wireless transceiver for communicating with the source and destination terminals over at least one high bandwidth channel, mass data storage configured to store the large data files for a predetermined period of time, wherein the predetermined period of time is greater than two minutes, and at least one processor coupled among the wireless transceiver and the mass data storage; wherein the processor, via the wireless transceiver, is configured to control receipt of at least one large data file, from the source terminal, for storage in the mass data storage, and after the airborne or spacebourne wireless communications device travels near to the destination terminal, control transmit of the large data file to the destination terminal; and wherein the processor is configured to: receive at a first time a control signal from a terrestrial station, wherein the control signal schedules a time and provides an originating geographic location to receive the large data file, wherein the originating geographic location is associated with the source terminal, receive, at a second time and from the source terminal, the large data file when the airborne or spacebourne wireless communications device travels to the originating geographic location, wherein the second time is after the first time, and transmit at a third time the large data file to the destination terminal, wherein the third time is at least two minutes after the second time, and wherein the destination terminal is geographically remote from the originating geographic location.