Google revealed top-secret plans Saturday to send balloons to the edge of space with the lofty aim of bringing Internet to the two-thirds of the global population currently without web access.
Scientists from the technology giant released as much as 30 helium-filled test balloons flying 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) above Christchurch in New Zealand, carrying antennae associated with ground base stations.
While still in early stages, “Project Loon” hopes eventually to launch a large number of balloons to supply Internet to remote areas of the planet, allowing significantly more than four billion people without any access to obtain online. “Project Loon is definitely an experimental technology for balloon-powered Access to the internet,” Google said in a statement.
“Balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes doubly high as commercial planes, can beam Access to the internet to the ground at speeds just like today's 3G networks or faster.
“It is very early days, but we think a ring of balloons, flying around the planet on the stratospheric winds, may be ways to provide affordable Access to the internet to rural, remote, and underserved areas down on earth below, or help after disasters, when existing communication infrastructure is affected.”
It works by ground stations connecting to the neighborhood Internet infrastructure and beaming signals to the balloons, which are self-powered by solar panels.
The balloons are then able to communicate with each other, forming a mesh network in the sky.
Users below have Internet antennae they attach the side of their house which could send and receive data signals from the balloons passing overhead.
Some 50 everyone was chosen to take part in Saturday's trial and could link to the Internet.
The company's ultimate goal is to have a ring of balloons circling the Earth, ensuring there's no the main globe that can't access the web.
“The concept may appear a bit crazy — and that's the main reason we're calling it Project Loon — but there's solid science behind it,” Google said.
But the organization added: “That is still highly experimental technology and we have quite a distance to go.”
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