Project Loon: Google Launches Balloons To Beam Internet In Poor Areas

Mobile users shall soon be receiving updates off balloons floating in the earth’s stratosphere, provided that Google’s ‘Project Loon’ launched this week stands successful. The search-giant launched 30 ballons in New Zealand to analyze the potential of possessing a global network of superpressure balloons hovering 12 miles over Earth providing 3G internet access and mobile phone signals even to the remotest corner of the globe.

project loon google balloons to access internet in remote parts of the world

Mike Cassidy, head of Project Loon, posts in his blog-

We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides internet access to the earth below. It’s very early days, but we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. There are many terrestrial challenges to internet connectivity – jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an internet connection is more than a month’s income.

In dimension, the balloons are 15 meters in width and 12 meters in height, and are swelled to 49 feet in diameter with helium gas. People secure the ballon’s connection via a special internet antenna fixed to their building. The signal bounce-beams from balloon to balloon, then to the worldwide internet back on Earth.

Project Loon was developed by the company’s X Lab, the same team behind Google Glass and driverless car.

Watch the video below to know more about the project-

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