Communications of the ACM
Google to Use Balloons to Provide Free Internet Access to Remote or Poor Areas
A Google team releases a balloon in Tekapo, New Zealand. Google is testing the balloons, which sail in the stratosphere and beam the Internet to Earth.
Credit: Andrea Dunlap/AP/Google
Google recently announced Project Loon, a plan to provide free Internet access to disaster-stricken, rural, or poor areas using giant helium balloons that beam Wi-Fi signals to the ground below.
Eventually, as the balloons move across the stratosphere, consumers in participating countries along the 40th parallel in the Southern Hemisphere could access the service.
Project Loon aims to provide much cheaper worldwide Internet connections, says Google's Mike Cassidy. "We think we can help and start having a discussion on how to get 5 billion people in remote areas" connected to the Internet, he says.
The thin plastic balloons use a mix of highly sophisticated and basic methods to deliver Internet connections of at least 3G cellular speeds. The balloons are equipped with antennas, radios, solar power panels, and navigation equipment that can communicate with specialized antennas on rooftops below. As long as one of the balloons is within a 24-mile radius, users should be able to access the network, according to Google.
The company, which needs permission from local governments to access public airwaves, will first test the balloons in New Zealand. "There is an enormous problem of affordability of broadband access in much of the developing world," notes consultant Gene Kimmelman.
From The Washington Post
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