The project created by the same Google X team who made self-driving cars and Google Glass aims to bring internet to the two-thirds of the global population currently without web access.
A pilot launch this morning in Christchurch New Zealand was the first public balloon release and is the beginning of Googles plans to build a ring of balloons that would fly around the globe at twice the altitude of aeroplanes and send 3G-speed internet to the earth below.
Mike Cassidy, director of the plans known as Project Loon told The Daily Telegraph that the internet balloons were a Google moonshot a radical solution to a huge problem.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph yesterday from New Zealand Mr Cassidy said the balloons which are shaped like a giant pumpkin and roughly the size of a small aircraft could solve the problem of internet access world wide.
For every 10 per cent additional proportion of the population that gets internet access their annual GDP gross domestic product growth will go up by 1.4 per cent. Most countries in the world their typical GDP rate is 3 or 4 percent.
Balloon internet could also be used after a natural disaster like an earthquake or tsunami when communication systems often shut down.
The balloons themselves are self-powered by solar panels and can cover an area of about 460 square miles.
Users below have an internet antennae they attach the side of their house with the mobile data from balloons working in a similar way as a hotspot that wont interfere with normal Wi-Fi delivery.
Those balloons released will travel from west to east off the coast of New Zealand and continue over Chile Argentina Australia and eventually South Africa and Uruguay.
Mr Cassidy said Google had not yet considered a business plan but the Loon Project could be affordable for those who do not have internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment