Google Wants To Use Balloons To Provide Internet For All

The signals travel in the unlicensed spectrum, which means Google doesn't have to go through the onerous regulatory processes required for Internet providers using wireless communications networks or satellites.

If successful, the technology might allow countries to leapfrog the expense of laying fibre cable, dramatically increasing Internet usage in places such as Africa and Southeast Asia.

Google's balloons fly free and out of eyesight, scavenging power from card table-sized solar panels that dangle below and gather enough charge in four hours to power them for a day as the balloons sail around the globe on the prevailing winds. Far below, ground stations with Internet capabilities about 100 kilometers (60 miles) apart bounce signals up to the balloons.

Because the whole idea sounds a bit crazy, Google says, it’s calling this initiative “Project Loon.”

The company is still working on how it can apply this to a fleet of balloons "so that each balloon is in the area you want it right when you need it".

The solar-powered balloons, each about 15 metres in diameter, carry an almost 10kg payload of antennas, computers, batteries and navigation equipment, according to a report by Wired.

According to Google, in "more than half" of the countries in the southern hemisphere and for two out of three people on earth, internet access is far too expensive.

Google wants to have a "ring of balloons, flying around the globe" to power its internet network. It has found a way to increase and decrease the altitude of balloons to take advantage of various wind directions.