Google Says They're Making Progress on Broadband By Balloon In June of last year Google unveiled Google Loon, the latest in a long line of similar projects that will use hot air balloons to deliver broadband and wireless services to under-served or emergency prone areas. Project Loon will use hot air balloons 49 feet wide stationed 12 miles above the planet, well above the range of commercial aircraft. Ground base stations set some sixty miles apart communicate with solar-powered radio transmitters affixed to the balloons, and Google steers the balloons using wind as they ride the 40th parallel.

quote: Astro Teller, who as “chief of moonshots” runs the company’s Google X research lab, said at the MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference that Project Loon should have a “semi-permanent” ring of balloons floating across the southern hemisphere in the next year or so. The balloons have logged more than two million kilometers in testing, he added....During the tests in Brazil, Google said the balloons transferred data at 22 megabits per second to ground antennas and five megabits per second to smart phones. The average Internet speed in the U.S. is just over 10 megabits per second, according to Akamai. Things haven't been all smooth; one test Not everybody has been optimistic that Google Loon will ever be more than a fun hobby for Google. Avid balloonist and aeronautical engineer Per Lindstrand stated that the company was wasting their time on the effort , saying the winds up there are simply too fierce to keep reasonable control of the balloons over longer periods of time (more than a few days). In an update on the project at the Wall Street Journal , Google insists they're making progress on these issues and has been able to deliver speeds up to 22 Mbps:Things haven't been all smooth; one test knocked out power lines in New Zealand , resulting in Google creating a balloon recovery team headed by a former California search and rescue mountaineering expert.







News Jump California Defends Its Net Neutrality Law; AT&T's Traffic Up 20% Despite Data Traffic Actually Being Down; + more news Are The Comcast-Charter X1 Talks Dead In The Water?; AT&T May Offer Phone Plans With Ads For Discounts; + more news Europe's Top Court: Net Neutrality Rules Bar Zero Rating; ViacomCBS To Rebrand CBS All Access As Paramount+; + more news Verizon To Buy Reseller TracFone For $7B; 5G Not The Competitive Threat To Cable Many Thought It Would Be; + more news MS.Wants Records From AT&T On $300M Project; Google Fiber Outages In Austin, Houston, Other Texan Cities; + more news States With The Biggest Decreases In Speed; AT&T Hopes You'll Forget Its Fight Against Accurate Maps; + more news AT&T's CEO Has A Familiar $olution To US Broadband Woes; EarthLink Files Suit Against Charter; + more news 5G Doesn't Live Up To Hype, AT&T's 5G Slower Than Its 4G; Cord-Cutting Now In 37% of Broadband Households; + more news FCC Cited False Broadband Data Despite Warnings; ZTE, Huawei Replacement Cost Is $1.87B, But Only $1B Allocated; + more Cogeco Rejects Altice USA's Atlantic Broadband Bid; AT&T Is Astroturfing The FCC In Support Of Trump Attack; + more news ---------------------- this week last week most discussed view:

topics flat nest

NYDude25

join:2007-08-23

Massapequa, NY NYDude25 Member Windy day...no service :( How do they stop the balloon from blowing away when it happens to be a windy day? Do they work in the rain too? And what happens after the sun goes down?



It seems like it would be easier to just use satellite service to reach these areas.

toby

Troy Mcclure

join:2001-11-13

Seattle, WA toby Member Re: Windy day...no service :( Each balloon costs thousands where as a satellite is millions.



They can track the winds, go higher, go lower.



I personally think it is a waste too. 78204168 (banned)

join:2013-02-28 78204168 (banned) to NYDude25

Member to NYDude25

I don't know what the hell you are talking about. The higher you go the thinner the atmosphere, which very little air. Having very little air means no wind.



The military already proved this could be done with blimps called Stratellites. They use solar power to charge the batteries and to power the electronics and what little propulsion they need in the form of a propeller. They can go very high and stay aloft for months at a time. And they carry full blown communication platforms.

NYDude25

join:2007-08-23

Massapequa, NY NYDude25 Member Re: Windy day...no service :( I don't know what the hell you are talking about. Depending on what part of the planet you're talking about, twelve miles up is barely the stratosphere. And certainly not enough high enough to avoid air movements that any 100 watt solar powered propeller could negate. HeadSpinning

MNSi Internet

join:2005-05-29

Windsor, ON 1 recommendation HeadSpinning Member A lot of hot air I swear Karl must keep using the phrase "hot air" on purpose - these balloons don't use hot air... existenz

join:2014-02-12 existenz Member Low orbit SAT more plausible 03b SATs aren't geo stationary but they claim 80GB capacity each and could probably bump that up in future - less than $100M each, and latency better than high orbit SAT. May be best compromise to provide Net to hard to reach areas if enough of them, especially if able to eventually feed even more capacity with redundant ground based lasers that can lockin while in motion as well as SATs talking to each other allowing for redundancy/multiple paths. elefante72

join:2010-12-03

East Amherst, NY elefante72 Member Re: Low orbit SAT more plausible These may serve more purpose in a DR/disaster situation. Say power is out, Google launches XYZ balloons in affected area during the emerge period to handle capacity. That is probably the near term benefit. And as FSOC becomes more cost-friendly they can use that as backhaul or to stationary POP in say mobile command centers or permanent setups for say rural villages.



Long term w/ appropriate modelling these could augment areas or serve as transition networks while more capacity is added. So say rather than have AT&T be the official "sponsor" of the wifi (and lock everyone else out) in say the super bowl, Google launches a "Google blimp" that looks cool, and gives capacity for that event. Think about it does it make sense to equip a football stadium used maybe 40 hours prime in a year with all that gear?



I don't see other companies out there trying to do this. You have the entrenched operators sitting on government controlled monopoly-granted spectrum that just mints money. They have ZERO incentive to innovate outside of their little warm printing presses. existenz

join:2014-02-12 existenz Member Re: Low orbit SAT more plausible Yeah, sort of like mobile cellsites for disasters or for major gatherings that need more capacity. Balloons could be useful in those cases. dra6o0n

join:2011-08-15

Mississauga, ON dra6o0n Member Re: Low orbit SAT more plausible And having them up above wilderness areas where people might become lost or has to call in a emergency, which normally has no cell signal.

firephoto

We the people

Premium Member

join:2003-03-18

Brewster, WA firephoto to existenz

Premium Member to existenz

And an array of ground stations for them to operate costed about $2.5M per antenna in 1997 with a lot of maintenance required due to them almost being in constant motion tracking sats horizon to horizon. Took 5 antennas with one being redundant.



What would be better is eliminating threats to infrastructure (not rehab'ing them to have a living walking trophy for your memories), installing mesh networks with cheap commodity gear, and provide data that enables your normal internet and voice coms with phones designed to work with wifi only rather than proprietary cellular infrastructure.



Africa doesn't need the Bell Network of satellites delivered via $5b worth of infrastructure in the hopes of making investors richer. existenz

join:2014-02-12 existenz Member Re: Low orbit SAT more plausible Yeah, for Africa it makes sense that standard WiFi should be used - maybe if using mobile (and fixed) hotspots that are SAT receivers that double as WiFi hotspot.



Or submit the SAT protocol as license free IEEE standard that future mobile WiFi chipsets could potentially include.



Thinking long term here.

NYDude25

join:2007-08-23

Massapequa, NY NYDude25 Member Re: Low orbit SAT more plausible Yea, this whole system has way too much maintenance and too much expense to deliver access to a few African villages. existenz

join:2014-02-12 existenz Member Re: Low orbit SAT more plausible Low orbit SAT would probably have better ROI in northern hemisphere with far more population spread across and more industrial countries, but for a different purpose. andre2

join:2005-08-24

Brookline, MA andre2 Member Solar-powered drones Would solar-powered drones make sense? Balloons can be heavier but with less ability to control position, and the need to replace when the gas leaks out.

raypsi1

join:2001-04-09

Wayne, MI raypsi1 Member Steampunk Balloons I heard a Radio Amateur operator in the UK is flying party balloons around the world with a beacon radio on them, takes about a week to go around the world. Last I heard he was up to his 38th launch.

And some of his newer launches caught up with the older launches because of varying wind speeds.

Balloons go back before even the telegraph was invented by Samuel Morse.

To me it sounds like Steampunk Balloon Cell Towers in the sky your comment..

