Leo Kelion
Google is launching balloons into near space to provide internet access to buildings below on the ground.
About 30 of the superpressure balloons are being launched from New Zealand from where they will drift around the world on a controlled path.
Attached equipment will offer 3G-like speeds to 50 testers in the country.
Access will be intermittent, but in time the firm hopes to build a big enough fleet to offer reliable links to people living in remote areas.
It says that balloons could one day be diverted to disaster-hit areas to aid rescue efforts in situations where ground communication equipment has been damaged.
But one expert warns that trying to simultaneously navigate thousands of the high-altitude balloons around the globe’s wind patterns will prove a difficult task to get right.
Airborne for months
Google calls the effort Project Loon and acknowledges it is “highly experimental” at this stage.
Each balloon is 15m (49.2ft) in diameter – the length of a small plane – and filled with lifting gases. Electronic equipment hangs underneath including radio antennas, a flight computer, an altitude control system and solar panels to power the gear.
Google aims to fly the balloons in the stratosphere, 20km (12 miles) or more above the ground, which is about double the altitude used by commercial aircraft and above controlled airspace.
Google says each should stay aloft for about 100 days and provide connectivity to an area stretching 40km in diameter below as they travel in a west-to-east direction.
The firm says the concept could offer a way to connect the two-thirds of the world’s population which does not have affordable net connections.
“It’s pretty hard to get the internet to lots of parts of the world,” Richard DeVaul, chief technical architect at Google[x] – the division behind the scheme – told the BBC.
“Just because in principle you could take a satellite phone to sub-Saharan Africa and get a connection there, it doesn’t mean the people have a cost-effective way of getting online.
“The idea behind Loon was that it might be easier to tie the world together by using what it has in common – the skies – than the process of laying fibre and trying to put up cellphone infrastructure.”
‘Low risk’
Previous proposals to provide connectivity from the upper atmosphere suggested floating high-altitude platforms that stayed in one place and were tethered to the ground.
Google rejected this idea as it involved fighting the winds, meaning the equipment would have to be large, expensive and limited to a fixed area.
The Latest Bing News on:
Internet access
- ISPs Shape Rollout Of COVID Internet Subsidies For Familieson May 11, 2021 at 6:31 pm
Families in need can begin enrolling for $50 internet subsidies beginning Wednesday morning, but the Federal Communications Commission is leaving many details about how the COVID-19-relief benefits ...
- FCC launches benefit program for those struggling to afford interneton May 11, 2021 at 4:22 pm
Eligible households can receive a discount of up to $50 per month for broadband internet services. The Federal Communications Commission will open enrollment on Wednesday, May 12, for the Emergency ...
- Federal money available to help families with internet accesson May 11, 2021 at 3:19 pm
A new federal program is about to launch to help people get broadband in their homes and computers, if they can't afford them.
- America’s internet issues are probably bigger than you thinkon May 11, 2021 at 11:37 am
Internet connectivity has been an issue in the United States for a while, and that issue had been highlighted by the ongoing pandemic that we find ourselves in the middle of. As more people are ...
- Hawaii internet service providers to participate in federal broadband aid programon May 11, 2021 at 10:19 am
Eligible Hawaii households can receive a discount of up to $50 a month on their broadband internet bill. There is an enhanced benefit of up to $75 per month for qualifying households on Hawaiian Home ...
- Internet-delivered CBT effective in treating children and adolescents with OCDon May 11, 2021 at 9:59 am
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in children and adolescents is associated with impaired education and worse general health later in life. Access to specialist treatment is often limited.
- Business broadband: Best internet service provider in 2021on May 10, 2021 at 4:39 am
When you’re comparing internet providers for your business, don’t just look at speed and price. More than anything else, you want the most reliable connection to keep your business running.
- Internet access should be considered utility, greater access improves quality of life, experts sayon May 7, 2021 at 9:51 am
In Indiana, 12.4% of Hoosiers live in areas where there is no broadband infrastructure that provides minimally acceptable speeds, according to the fact sheet.
- Editorial: Broadband internet access must be addressedon May 6, 2021 at 2:15 am
A good example is the issue of insufficient broadband internet access. Students, teachers, office workers and many others have had to rely on internet connections to do countless things they once were ...
- Dallas has some of the worst Internet access in the U.S. Can the county fix it?on May 4, 2021 at 3:48 pm
The Republican Dallas County commissioner will lead a months-long conversation on how the county can coordinate multiple agencies to boost a signal ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Internet access
The Latest Bing News on:
Internet access in remote areas
- State Ed report: Many students began year without access to a device, interneton May 6, 2021 at 4:30 am
New survey results show about 8% of New York's public school students, or about 215,00 students, did not have a laptop or other device to use for remote ...
- Local View: Increasing internet access can help end Duluth's digital divideon May 5, 2021 at 12:00 pm
People with disabilities in areas where internet access is non-existent or limited are part of the "digital divide," which prevents them from getting remote job opportunities and which, as often is ...
- Opinion: In rural Oklahoma, high-speed internet access is critical... and hard to geton May 1, 2021 at 9:30 pm
I’m not sure my urban friends understand why high-speed internet access is an urgent issue to rural Oklahomans, so let me tell you more about what I and my family ...
- Bay Area Lawmaker’s Bill To Preserve Remote Access For Public Meetings Post-Pandemic Facing Resistanceon April 30, 2021 at 11:34 am
Some state legislators are trying to preserve remote access to public meetings post-pandemic through the passing of Assembly Bill 339.
- Enterprise Security at Home: Remote Access Optionson April 28, 2021 at 10:24 am
Part 2 of the eWEEK series "The Home as Enterprise Branch" focuses on zero trust as a key component in next-gen security.
- ADTANCE Connects with Starlink to Deliver Livestream Remote Assistance in Locations without Conventional Internet Accesson April 28, 2021 at 2:06 am
The ADTANCE Support and Fieldstreaming solution has been optimized to work with Starlink satellite internet enabling customer support technicians across the globe to provide ADTANCE multi-camera video ...
- Internet is “not a privilege; it’s a right”: Rural Texas students struggle without broadband accesson April 27, 2021 at 10:00 am
As the Texas Legislature tries to address a lack of broadband internet access for millions of people, students in rural areas are struggling to keep up academically during remote school.
- MCMC finalising satellite broadband access plans in remote areason April 15, 2021 at 6:37 am
KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 -- The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is finalising the tender process for satellite broadband access services in 839 remote locations nationwide ...
- MCMC finalising satellite broadband access plans in remote areason April 15, 2021 at 6:35 am
KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is finalising the tender process for satellite broadband access services in 839 remote ... He said the area consisted ...
- Bandwidth sharing reduces remote Internet access coston April 14, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Telesat Monday launched a North America-wide high speed Internet service it said can reach ... to make the initial investment in a broadband access service and set up an ISP service for users in the ...
