Google's high-altitude (stratospheric) balloon wireless provider system, Project Loon, has released a publicity video, including interesting shots of balloons, mission control, and a balloon factory, New Zealand mountains and all that goodness. It is a publicity video, so not much detail here. They claim the balloons now last in the air for ~100 days, and their factory can produce one balloon in a "few hours".
I'm not the biggest fan of Google but they do have some cool projects going.
Google is not putting all its eggs in the Loon basket; the company also has plans to use solar-powered drones and SpaceX-launched satellites to provide Internet services.
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Google may be planning to deploy its Project Loon balloons above the United States:
Google appears to be planning to test its Project Loon internet balloons across the entire US, according to recent documents filed with the FCC.
The company has asked the Federal Communications Commission for a license to test experimental radios that use wireless spectrum in the millimeter bandwidth in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Google said it wants to begin the tests on January 1 for a period of 24 months.
The testing could indicate that Google is broadening its ambitions for providing consumers with internet access through the special balloons developed in its secretive X Labs.
Project Loon is Google's plan to operate a fleet of solar-powered balloons — flying at an altitude of 60,000 to 90,000 feet — that are capable of beaming internet access down to the earth. Google has described the project as a way to bring internet access to people in developing economies and regions of the world that lack communications infrastructure.
[...] More tellingly, the filing notes that Google's latest request for an experimental license is for continued development of previous tests, in which the company also acquired experimental licenses from the FCC. According to the previous filings that Google references, those tests were conducted in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Winnemucca is a remote town of roughly 7,000 in Nevada, and its attractions include a small brothel district known as "The Line" and an annual Basque festival, according to Wikipedia. But in August 2014, one month before Google's first FCC request for a license to test in Winnemucca, the published minutes of the Winnemucca City Council contain a proposal to let Google use its airport industrial park as a "temporary balloon launching facility."
The most recent Google FCC filings indicated that Google wants to use frequencies in the 71 GHz to 76 GHz range and in the 81 GHz to 86 GHz range.
Previously: Google Releases New Project Loon Video
Google to Provide Sri Lanka with 3G Internet Using Balloons
One of the Google X "moonshots", a plan to use solar-powered drone aircraft to provide Internet connectivity to rural areas, has been axed. Some of the engineers may be reassigned to Project Loon and other efforts:
Back in 2014 Google (now Alphabet) bought Titan Aerospace, a company specializing in solar-powered drones that could fly at high altitudes for long periods of time. The goal was to offer internet access to rural areas that lacked connectivity by beaming it down from on high. In that way it was similar to another moon shot, Project Loon, and to Facebook's Aquila.
Today, however, Alphabet confirmed to Business Insider that it had ended its exploration of solar-powered drones. In fact according to a spokesperson, the project ended almost a year ago. That would make it part of a big group of setbacks for X, formerly X Labs, the incubator for wild ideas that has suffered under the strict financial discipline being imposed by Alphabet and its CFO, Ruth Porat. Bloomberg offered a rundown of the high-level departures that have occurred since the creation of Alphabet as a holding company and the separation of X from Google
Also at 9to5Google and Bloomberg.
Previously: Google Releases New Project Loon Video
Google to Provide Sri Lanka with 3G Internet Using Balloons
Facebook's Laser Drones v Google's Net-Beaming Balloons
Google May Test Balloon Internet Service Over the United States
Google Testing Project Loon: Concerns Are Without "Factual Basis"
Google Asks for Airspace Access for Internet Balloons
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @09:07AM
"Ahoy you brown people below! We bring you this lovely very large wooden horse as the sign of our friendship..."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @09:14AM
Loon, delivering porn to the world.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Chromium_One on Monday April 20 2015, @09:20AM
Balloon hunting - a new government-sponsored sport in areas where unfiltered internet is considered a crime.
When you live in a sick society, everything you do is wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @07:51PM
It isn't so easy [apnewsarchive.com] shooting these things down, you know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @09:21AM
So I get, this is a looney project?
(Score: 3, Funny) by wonkey_monkey on Monday April 20 2015, @09:53AM
Project Loon
TL;DR Google is going to invade Canada.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday April 20 2015, @10:03AM
Google seems to do a lot of research in high-flying projects [google.com] lately...
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 2, Funny) by jimbrooking on Monday April 20 2015, @11:11AM
"Cool projects going" until they pull the plug on them.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @01:27PM
Yeah, pulling the plug on a balloon is not going to be funny. But it gives a whole new meaning to "my connection is down".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @01:27PM
They give most projects about 2 years to see if they will do anything. If not they try something else. They do not have infinite resources...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @11:30AM
They never give up, do they?
Its another project to gather all communications. Remember when google street view cars "accidentally" gathered all wifi communications?
Whats next? All cellphone data? All radio noise? (there used to be receivers installed in toll booths somewhere that received any nearby radio receiver's oscillator's signal (used in heterodyning) to find out which station the radio was tuned to).
I heard that one can construct a basic radar by gathering radio noise passively. I believe someone from MIT did that some time ago. Google must have developed either this, or something far more advanced and intends to gather all data that can be gathered technically.
By using their surveillance technology in balloons that are so far up, they hope to keep them out of enemy hands (responsible citizens, who own the place).
...give him an inch and he will take a foot. Google wants to enter stratosphere now; they also want to send you plumbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 20 2015, @02:42PM
Well, it will allow the tinfoil hatters to unite with those fearing EM radiation in an initiative to cover the houses with Faraday cages. The difference being that the tinfoil hatters still will put wireless routers into those EM-protected houses.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Monday April 20 2015, @06:07PM
Remember when google street view cars "accidentally" gathered all wifi communications?
So Google accidentally listened to the public radio station you set up in your house?
I struggle with the outrage over that particular one...
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday April 22 2015, @04:04PM
Personally, I'm less offended by the fact that they collected that data than by the fact that they didn't put the list of open wifi networks in some public online database. Expecting open wifi to be private is...beyond stupidity.