41–50 of 299 posts
How fast will the connections be?
Each balloon can provide connectivity to a ground area about 40 km in
diameter at speeds comparable to 3G. For balloon-to-balloon and
balloon-to-ground communications, the balloons use antennas
equipped withspecialized radio frequency technology. Project
Loon currently uses ISM bands (specifically 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands)
that are available for anyone to use.
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5775324 The amazing thing is this has been a rumor[0] tossed around for years (2008). [0] http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080220/123009308.shtml
Luckily it's not a rumor any more, Look at the article's url!
This is an awesome idea. However, in my mind, there is a potential issue that the article doesn't seem to mention. How do they keep the balloons up for a long period of time, fighting all of the different variables of weather, gas leakage, temperature variances, material degradation due to being outdoors? Fiber and copper stays in the ground undisturbed for decades, because it's cheap & low maintenance, barring from…
"Project Loon balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather."
OH! They're just going to make enough that there is always one overhead! That's so damn cool. I can barely believe it. Wireless technology is some of the most amazing stuff.
It's fascinating to see how well Google has branched out. It started as just a search engine competing with Lycos, AltaVista, & Yahoo and yet they didn't just stop, they kept going. They built all these new services & products around their core product (search) and it's paid off tremendously. It's definitely something to model future companies off of. When you win the race, don't stop, keep running.
If this takes off that'll be possible. I could find a parking spot from the sky. :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
and C
How long does a 100k+ employee company get credit for something a small handful of their employees did almost half a century ago? Not that C wasn't an achievement but . . .
This is an awesome idea. However, in my mind, there is a potential issue that the article doesn't seem to mention. How do they keep the balloons up for a long period of time, fighting all of the different variables of weather, gas leakage, temperature variances, material degradation due to being outdoors? Fiber and copper stays in the ground undisturbed for decades, because it's cheap & low maintenance, barring from…
I'm assuming there's some sort of monitoring onboard system and when they need new parts, they'd just land at one of these predetermined stations and be refitted. There weren't a lot of details in that video but it seemed to me like they implied they were inexpensive and easy to swap parts from.
It's fascinating to see how well Google has branched out. It started as just a search engine competing with Lycos, AltaVista, & Yahoo and yet they didn't just stop, they kept going. They built all these new services & products around their core product (search) and it's paid off tremendously. It's definitely something to model future companies off of. When you win the race, don't stop, keep running.
It would be great if it didn't take a company project to overcome the fear of being harassed at 2:30 AM because someone misused my open WiFi.