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posted by martyb on Monday December 18 2017, @04:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the cue-the-monsoon-and-shark-comments dept.

Instead of using balloons or drones, Alphabet/Google X plans to create a backbone of fixed boxes that communicate using lasers in order to deliver Internet access in Andhra Pradesh. Users would connect to the end points wirelessly:

Alphabet's X Lab has cooked up yet another Internet connectivity scheme, according to a report from Reuters. Past efforts have involved floating Internet balloons and laying lots of fiber optic cable, but this Internet delivery system sends data over laser beams! This isn't an experimental system like Project Loon; India's Andhra Pradesh state government has signed an agreement with Alphabet to bring the technology to millions of people starting next year.

[...] Alphabet's rollout in India will involve fitting "2,000 boxes installed as far as 20 kilometers (12 miles) apart on posts and roofs" according to the report. The optical system is expected to hit 20 Gbit/s from box to box and would serve as a backbone, replacing more expensive technologies like fiber optics. The final connection to users would happen over Wi-Fi or cellular.

Related: Google May Test Balloon Internet Service Over the United States
Google Kills Off Titan Internet Drone "Moonshot"
Alphabet Deploys Project Loon Balloons to Puerto Rico
Balloons Provide Internet Service to 100,000 People in Puerto Rico


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @06:43AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @06:43AM (#611297)

    It would cost tens of billions of dollars or more.

  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Monday December 18 2017, @07:21AM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday December 18 2017, @07:21AM (#611304) Homepage Journal

    Believe me, they have that. They have about $50 billion, give or take. They call it cash reserves. And when we do the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, we're going to cut the corporate tax. And they'll bring a lot of that money back to the USA. And make tremendous investments. We see Microsoft already doing a total makeover of their buildings. All new buildings from the foundations up. That's in our great state of Washington, folks. Not in Ireland. Not in Holland. In the USA. Our cyber companies, and many others, are Making America Great Again. It's going to happen even more, once we do the Tax Cut.

    And by getting rid of Obama's net neutrality rules, we gave a lot of freedom to our Internet companies. So they can start to get that Internet under control. And make a new Internet, where our companies can grow TREMENDOUSLY. We rolled back the EGREGIOUS government overreach. And unleashed American innovation! 🇺🇸