Taking your business development cues from Pixar’s Up is always a good idea. Case in point: Google, who this weekend unveiled a heretofore top secret project which aims to use a halo of huge balloons circling the earth to provide global wi-fi to 4.8 billion people who currently don’t have access to the Internet.
They’re literally using balloons to connect people in living in jungles. Hence, Up.
Project Loon was trialled yesterday in epicentre of innovation, Christchurch, New Zealand, using thirty solar-powered helium balloons measuring fifteen metres in diameter which float twenty kilometers into the stratosphere and are linked to stations on the ground using antennae. These then beamed a successful internet signal into the homes of fifty participants at a speed comparable to and faster than current 3G networks.
The project, two years and untold dollars in development at the Google X Lab, is being heralded for its potential use in remote countries and disaster zones, particularly in Africa and Asia where the remaining two thirds of the world live bereft of the accompanying benefits of the Internet.
Google’s ultimate goal is then to circle the world with the Project Loon balloons, a halo of connectivity, providing affordable access to their services [and advertisers] regardless of locale.
An Australian trial of Project Loon in Tasmania, chosen for its alignment with the 40th parallel and pending government agreement, is slated for mid-2014.
Begrudging, intermittent connection to the Internet permitting [I’m currently tethered to my phone, ugh], you can read more about Project Loon at Google’s Official Blog.
