This is an awesome idea but I am skeptical if stupid govts like in India will let this move forward. I am sure someone there will raise some security concerns. Probably same for most of Africa.
Project Loon
81–90 of 299 posts
Re: Project Loon
#82So the balloons just float on the air channels 20km up and presumably circulate around world? I can imagine problems coming up with some countries objecting to these being over their airspace.
So the question, then, is how high do you need to go before you're no longer in a country's airspace?
Re: Project Loon
#83Will these balloons also be feeding data to the NSA via PRISM?
No need. Why climb in through the window when you have the keys to the back door?
Re: Project Loon
#84It'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.
Almost everything they're done is centered around ads and getting more data on their users to sell more ads. Even this project, in the end it's about getting more people online to look at their ads. (not sure how much ad revenue you can get from poor places, but whatever) EDIT: To those saying they're playing the long game; Playing the long game doesn't make sense. The long game is being fully wired. By the time poor…
It's not like in mid-90's the Internet started getting big and the telecoms started running wires because it was the best option. They based the new network offerings on the infrastructure that had been in place for decades.
Developing areas don't have that existing infrastructure. Perhaps setting up a wired infrastructure will make the most financial sense. However, I don't think that's a foregone conclusion, and a pure wireless infrastructure may be far cheaper and more profitable.
Re: Project Loon
#85Remember late last year, when there were rumors about Google being in talks to acquire Dish network?
I couldn't imagine that Google would actually use Dish's spectrum to build a traditional cellular network. Building all those towers is a huge investment and I didn't think that played to Google's strengths. But, assuming that Loon needs licensed spectrum, maybe Loon (or something like it) was the plan?
Re: Project Loon
#86Wow....this is mind-blowing. The potential impact of a globally connected internet is crazy. No longer can a country fully filter/control all internet traffic. This could be a major boon to democracy. I wonder if Google did this, partially to piss China off. This seems like an awesome way to get around the 'Great Firewall'.
I wonder how long it'll be before reports surface of authoritarian countries deploying anti-Loon lasers.
In all seriousness, I'm curious how difficult it would be to jam this network.
Re: Project Loon
#87This sounded like a great idea to me at first. But,
Each balloon provides coverage to a 40km diameter area. That's a lot of balloons to cover rural Africa. It would help a great deal if the balloons could be made to stay in precise locations, like geostationary satellites. I thought maybe they had solved that problem (which would be amazing). But, I guess not. They said in the video that the balloons would follow the wind all the way around the Earth. Meaning, at any given time, the overwhelming majority of balloons are over the ocean. The difficulty, then, is not merely putting enough balloons up to cover the ground in 40km increments, but covering the ocean as well, in a solid band around the entire Earth. It's not hard to imagine that a stupendous number of balloons would be required to provide any meaningful level of coverage.
I think this is more Google hubris than technical innovation.
Re: Project Loon
#88"I love those who yearn for the impossible." -Goethe I wish other large companies showed such ambition. Telecoms like AT&T can't even be bothered to roll out the network upgrades they promised in the early 2000's.
Minor nitpick: AT&T has done a shit-ton of research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs edit: apparently a different beast than today's AT&T
AT&T spun off Bell Labs in the 90's as part of Lucent. Lucent was acquired by Alcatel. Alcatel shut down Bell labs in 2008.
Re: Project Loon
#89Wow....this is mind-blowing. The potential impact of a globally connected internet is crazy. No longer can a country fully filter/control all internet traffic. This could be a major boon to democracy. I wonder if Google did this, partially to piss China off. This seems like an awesome way to get around the 'Great Firewall'.
>I wonder if Google did this, partially to piss China off.
Clearly, not. China has enough air power (including drones) to shut down any amount of the balloons.
Re: Project Loon
#90This sounded like a great idea to me at first. But, Each balloon provides coverage to a 40km diameter area. That's a lot of balloons to cover rural Africa. It would help a great deal if the balloons could be made to stay in precise locations, like geostationary satellites. I thought maybe they had solved that problem (which would be amazing). But, I guess not. They said in the video that the balloons would follow the…
The balloons are not going to move in one direction though. The video also mentioned you can steer the balloons, which means, there is way to keep them above the ground and not the ocean.