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Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

wired.co.uk

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Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#81

Post by ajasmin »

Thrymr wrote: post #16
ihsw wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

What is the rest of the world doing with these old analog TV bands? Is that part of the spectrum already exploited by cell carriers?

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#82

Post by eranation »

ok_craig wrote: post #9

That image of the Google blimp almost looks like the logo was photoshopped on. Any way to tell if that's real or not?

Sorry for the plug (if a not-for-profit campaign a friend is doing to build a school in Ethiopia is considered a plug) but this will help this school (if it gets built) get also internet

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ewb-lets-build-a-school-in...

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#83

Post by nwzpaperman »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #56
nwzpaperman wrote: post #47

Pretty sure google should deploy wifi blimps to south/north Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc. before throwing resources at African wifi. I guess google plans to inherit Nigerian family fortunes and such and only needs the coms infrastructure to obtain it.

Downvoted because your comment consists of an unsubstantiated assertion followed by a dismissive slur.

Assertion? Do explain your authority on Africa to me.

As someone who has family in Africa, right now, and more going within a month, I am confident in my assertion that Africa is a failed continent.

Everyone on earth has tried to civilize, ahem, "bring online" Africa and failed beyond resource extraction. It is a money pit and there are no rules.

There is significant precedence for failure if you open any history book. It is arrogant to think you can influence anything meaningful there. Show some humility and invest in your own back yard where you have a slightly higher chance of making a meaningful impact.

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#85

Post by nikatwork »

vanderZwan wrote: post #64

I suspect it will be more mobile internet than desktops - you do have to realise that these dayse the African economy practically runs on mobile phones, and land lines are uncommon to nonexistent. I wonder how that changes the way they'll use internet access. Speaking of how society uses the internet, I traveled through Ghana for four weeks last year and I heard that one of the reasons internet cafes aren't really wa…

So they were running a little internet startup. Perhaps instead of trying to segregate them from the internet, we could make use of their entrepreneurial spirit?

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#87

Post by rattray »

Myrmornis wrote: post #74
vanderZwan wrote: post #64

I suspect it will be more mobile internet than desktops - you do have to realise that these dayse the African economy practically runs on mobile phones, and land lines are uncommon to nonexistent. I wonder how that changes the way they'll use internet access. Speaking of how society uses the internet, I traveled through Ghana for four weeks last year and I heard that one of the reasons internet cafes aren't really wa…

Even with your "Before this gets misinterpreted" sentence, your post is essentially saying: "Oh yes, well, internet in Africa would be nice, but those Africans, you know, they mainly use the internet to try to scam people in the first world". As such it is inaccurate, smug, racist and ignorant, and reflects an implicit assumption that the world should be organized so that it is benign to the interests of affluent wes…

I think that's a bit harsh; at least, I didn't interpret his anecdote as such. I've spent some time in West Africa, but not much in internet cafes and none in Nigeria (or Ghana, for that matter). I never saw anything like what he described, so I appreciated the anecdote.

Basically, I took his observations as more an honest description than a judgement. Your accusations of "inaccurate" and "ignorant" beg the question; are you speaking from a point of superior knowledge on the matter?

Re: Google blimps will carry wireless signal across Africa

#89

Post by cageface »

fredsted wrote: post #48
mtgx wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you assuming this is automatically a surveillance tool? It's not a drone with the explicit intent to search for something. It's a way to get Internet to people.

High resolution ground photography and mobile location tracking came to mind. Google often cooperates with government and police.

Government and police are already logging the net. If you think you have any privacy online you haven't been paying enough attention.
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