Google introduce high flying internet balloons in New Zealand

Google X laboratories where Google glass and driverless cars was developed has launched the ‘Project Loon’ in New Zealand. The project which utilizes a balloon about 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) from the ground and a receiver pinned to a place on the ground to provide internet access was launched with some testers yesterday. Google’s scientists released up to 30 helium filled test balloons above Christchurch, carrying antennae linked to ground base stations.

Google aims to connect about 4.8 billion unconnected people to the internet through the use of these flying balloons. Google began by reaching 50 people in the rural area of Leeston in New Zealand about a month ago to participate in the project trials.

The first person to test the project was Charles Nimmo, a farmer in the small town. He was able to do surf the web for about 15 minutes until the balloon flew out of range according to what he told the New Zealand Herald. In fact, this is its major problem as signal is lost when the balloon is out of range of its receivers.

“It’s being weird,” he told the newspaper. “But it’s been exciting to be part of something new.”

Google will tackle this problem when they are ready to launch the service fully by finding a way to control the balloon against the wind by using wind data to guide the balloons in the air. The numbers of balloons will also be much (hundreds of thousands) to cater for the world and especially unconnected areas. The balloons will be close together so you may not have a balloon out of range at any particular period of time. The balloons will also be able to communicate with each other which will form a mesh of network in the sky.

No worries, the balloons are so far from us that you won’t be able to see it with your physical eyes so you won’t have to start tracking one before surfing the net. This project according to Google will find its major benefits when there is a disaster as people will still be able to use Google balloons to connect to the internet. Remember the balloons will be 20kms into the sky, except the disaster occurs in space which is very rare.

Google had this to say about the project: “The idea may sound a bit crazy – and that’s part of the reason we’re calling it Project Loon – but there’s solid science behind it,” and continued: “This is still highly experimental technology and we have a long way to go.”

Project leader Mike Cassidy told reporters that if successful, might allow countries to forgo the expense of installing fibre-optic cable.

“It’s a huge moonshot, a really big goal to go after,” he said.

“The power of the internet is probably one of the most transformative technologies of our time.”

The project was initiated at Google X laboratories by Rich DeVaul, an expert in wearable technology. He had to convince colleagues at Google’s lab that it wasn’t just daydreaming, that it had solid principles before Google could accept it into its list of projects.

Google said it’s also planning to set up other pilot programmes in countries at the same latitude as New Zealand, including Australia and Argentina, due to the stratospheric conditions.

Posted in Google, internet