Tech giant Google announced on Monday that it would be testing 20 high-altitude balloons in western Queensland next month that are capable of sending and receiving 4G-like signals. Melbourne-based newspaper The Age that the test is part of Googles long-term initiative to bring Internet access to remote locations around the world.
Its the latest announcement from an initiative called Project Loon, in 2013. If it comes to fruition, balloons will eventually circle the planet at twice the altitude of passenger jets, propelled by westerly stratospheric winds, picking up 4G-like signals from Web-connected base stations and transmitting them back to consumers phones and homes. On the ground, Project Loons support in Australia comes from Telstra, the countrys largest telecommunications company, which will share space on the radio spectrum and operate the solar-powered base stations the balloons use to communicate.
In 2014, an estimated two-thirds of the worlds population is without Internet access. For many communities that would like to be better connected, underground fiber cabling is prohibitively difficult or expensive. The idea of Project Loon is to override this gap in communication by allowing low-flying satellites to deliver Internet access to pretty much anyone, anywhere. highlights the potential for helping in the aftermath of natural disasters.
Last June, Googles pilot attempt at airborne 4G involved helium-filled balloons over Christchurch, New Zealand. Its not just the far reaches of the world that dont have the Internet, project founder Richard DeVaul . Parts of New Zealand dont either. This is a crazy idea. but we might be able to do it.