Doesn't using TV signals or satellite require special hardware that doesn't come on cheap android phones?
yes. these blimps must be providing links between APs on the ground, not direct connections to users.
Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
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Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#12That image of the Google blimp almost looks like the logo was photoshopped on. Any way to tell if that's real or not?
Yep, I think it's photoshopped: http://www.flickr.com/photos/isafmedia/4995227882/
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#13In the areas where these blimps will be deployed, there almost certainly hasn't been the same discussions of privacy, tracking, corporate abuse, data breaches and perils of giving personal information out on the web nor the 20 years of background to go with it. You don't suppose Google will be educating the future web users to protect themselves from Google, do you?
There haven't been many serious discussions about privacy or tracking in the US either. The only exceptions might be health data and some financial data, yet much of that information could probably be mined to, using data on purchases and online activity.
Here's [1] just one example of the type of thing that is easily possible. It meant that if you bought a new high end car during the last campaign you were likely to receive a direct mail solicitation for campaign contribution from one or both of the presidential candidates. Maybe that is good or maybe it is bad, but there have been few serious discussions, and during recent years the Supreme Court has declined to recognize most notions of any rights to privacy.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#14This is the greatest innovation since Virtudyne's "The Digital Donkey" [1] — which is a parody of SimIndiana [2]. There really have been donkey cart driven libraries. [3]
Of course, there really have been projects that used balloons in the upper atmosphere. It is actually difficult to maintain a balloon at a constant altitude in the upper atmosphere because you have to account for daily temperature variation and changing wind patterns. The most famous project of this sort was Project Mogul[4], which attempted to put a balloon in the atmosphere's analogue of the SOFAR channel to listen for anything that sounded like a nuclear test in the Soviet Union. One of the Project Mogul balloons crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. The government's cover story was that it was a "weather balloon", which of course, it wasn't. But it wasn't an alien spaceship, either.
[1]: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Virtudyne_0x3a__The_Digital_...
[2]: http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2004/040707b.html
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#15My girlfriend just asked a question that had not even occurred to me: what happens during a storm? I am sure Google's engineers have a way to handle that, but I am genuinely curious about what their solution is.
I am not an expert but I would guess that they would ground the blimp and secure it.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#16Doesn't using TV signals or satellite require special hardware that doesn't come on cheap android phones?
The article is fairly light on technical details, however the signals will probably be some manner of 3G (or even LTE).
> the signals will probably be some manner of 3G (or even LTE).
That contradicts the details that are in the article: "Google lobbyists are targeting regulators across developing countries to allow them to use airwaves currently reserved for television broadcasts - which operate at lower frequencies and can therefore penetrate buildings and travel longer distances than current WiFi technology." It looks like it will depend on access points that serve as routers.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#17Now AFRICOM won't need to buy more bandwidth from china…
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#18My girlfriend just asked a question that had not even occurred to me: what happens during a storm? I am sure Google's engineers have a way to handle that, but I am genuinely curious about what their solution is.
I believe the blimps would be above the cloud layer.
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#19My girlfriend just asked a question that had not even occurred to me: what happens during a storm? I am sure Google's engineers have a way to handle that, but I am genuinely curious about what their solution is.
What happens when local militants/vandals shoot them down?
Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa
#20And so it begins.
There is a new age coming, one where we realise surveillance is ubiquitous and more importantly carries benefits for us as well as loss of what we thought of as privacy.
This is probably a good thing. These blimps will not be the last of atmospheric and LEO orbitals that will criss cross the globe and provide always-on services we suddenly cannot live without.
We do need to manage who holds and uses information that relates to us personally, but in the end our children will always know where they and their friends are, will be able to look at any point on the globe instantly (want to see the giraffe running across the Serengeti right now) and the losses, well, we will deal with them. The benefits are going to be huge.
Tim Berners-Lee, look what you started.