Project Loon – if you haven’t heard about it – is Google’s ambitious plan to share the Internet to the other 2/3 of the world that is not connected using balloons, hence the name of the project. The simple explanation for the process is that Google’s balloons can fly above remote places to provide Internet connectivity, and Australia has enough remote places without connectivity for the test.
For these test flights, Google is teaming up with Telstra – the latter providing the base stations where the Internet signal will be coming from. The idea is that these balloons – with its sophisticated antenna technology – can “beam down” 4G-ish Internet connectivity to homes and devices 20 kilometers below each balloon.
The first test of this new project from Google was made in Christchurch, New Zealand, where Google learned that ideal stratospheric conditions would matter a lot for these helium-powered balloons. Google actually is planning for a long ring of these balloons circling the globe, bringing affordable Internet to areas unreached by ground-based telcos.
You can understand why Project Loon balloons will appeal to developing nations – balloons mean that no extra cost will have to be paid laying down fiber optic cables. Google says each balloon in the project can stay aloft for 100 days. It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on this project moving forward.
VIA: SlashGear
