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Google Broadband Balloon Project 'Loon' Making Great Strides

In June of 2013 Google unveiled Google Loon, the latest in a long line of similar projects that will use hot air balloons to deliver broadband and wireless services to under-served or emergency prone areas. Project Loon will use hot air balloons 49 feet wide stationed 12 miles above the planet, well above the range of commercial aircraft. Ground base stations set some sixty miles apart communicate with solar-powered radio transmitters affixed to the balloons, and Google steers the balloons using wind as they ride the 40th parallel.

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Not everybody was optimistic that Google Loon will ever be more than a fun hobby for Google. Avid balloonist and aeronautical engineer Per Lindstrand stated that the company was wasting their time on the effort, saying the winds up there are simply too fierce to keep reasonable control of the balloons over longer periods of time (more than a few days).

But in an update on the Loon project over at The Verge, Google states they've make major strides in keeping its broadband balloons aloft:
quote:
The early models last only a few days; the goal for commercial viability was to have them floating for three months. "Today we are excited to announce most of our balloons stay up for as long as six months," says Pichai. The newest record was a ballon that lasted 187 days in the air, circumnavigating the globe nine times, passing over more than a dozen countries on four continents along the way.
There's still no word on a commercial deployment, however. With Loon Google isn't planning to challenge carriers as much as they aim to strike deals with them to extend wireless coverage worldwide; as such the company says they're in talks with a number of carriers to start extended field trials.

Most recommended from 12 comments


HeadSpinning
MNSi Internet
join:2005-05-29
Windsor, ON

2 recommendations

HeadSpinning

Member

A lot of hot air

OK... obligatory post - they're not hot air balloons...