Inside Google’s Project Loon — giving every cell phone direct access to the Internet
With the potential to bypass telcos and government censors. It will be fascinating to see how the fly-over rights negotiations go for China and countries that want to control the connections to their people, for political or business reasons.
Google can easily avoid the Northern Hemisphere altogether to start. They hope to have all major cities in the Southern Hemisphere covered 90% of the time later this year. They have 7 balloon up currently, but have had as many as 70 up at one time. The ultimate global solution is 10's of thousands.
The only navigation control is vertical (adding or removing air as ballast; the helium remains in a separate part of the balloon) so they can catch or avoid the prevailing winds.
Here you see some of the engineering team. I am rooting for them to help democratize access across the planet, and offer a competitive alternative to the limited broadband choices in many parts of the world today.
Inside Google’s Project Loon — giving every cell phone direct access to the Internet
With the potential to bypass telcos and government censors. It will be fascinating to see how the fly-over rights negotiations go for China and countries that want to control the connections to their people, for political or business reasons.
Google can easily avoid the Northern Hemisphere altogether to start. They hope to have all major cities in the Southern Hemisphere covered 90% of the time later this year. They have 7 balloon up currently, but have had as many as 70 up at one time. The ultimate global solution is 10's of thousands.
The only navigation control is vertical (adding or removing air as ballast; the helium remains in a separate part of the balloon) so they can catch or avoid the prevailing winds.
Here you see some of the engineering team. I am rooting for them to help democratize access across the planet, and offer a competitive alternative to the limited broadband choices in many parts of the world today.