Google’s Internet-beaming balloons are ready to take off on the next phase of their mission to deliver online access in regions where most people live offline, and will soon begin hovering in the stratosphere above Indonesia, where less than 20 per cent have online access. “Project Loon” aims to beam high-speed Internet signals from clusters of balloons floating about 60,000 feet above the Earth with the aim of getting 100 million people online. It is still testing its technology, so there is still no estimate of when it will start selling the Internet service to households and businesses within range of the balloons. If things pan out as envisioned, Google will deploy hundreds of balloons to serve as cell towers in the sky, invisible to the naked eye. To pull it off, the project’s engineers must choreograph a high-altitude dance, ensuring that as one balloon drifts out of a targeted territory’s Internet receiving range, another one will float in to fill the void.
Living In The Cloud
