Google launches Internet-streaming antennas on large balloons to get planet online

Tekapo/Christchurch (New Zealand), Jun 15: Search giant Google this week has launched giant balloons into the stratosphere with the goal of providing internet access to the entire planet.The translucent, jellyfish-shaped balloons were released from a frozen field in the heart of New Zealand's South Island. They hardened into shiny pumpkins as they rose into the blue skies above Lake Tekapo.It was the culmination of 18 months' work on what Google calls 'Project Loon'.Developed in the secretive X lab that came up with a driverless car and web-surfing eyeglasses, the flimsy helium-filled inflatables beam the Internet down to earth as they sail past on the wind.Still in their experimental stage, the balloons were the first of thousands that Google's leaders eventually hope to launch 20 km into the stratosphere in order to bridge the gaping digital divide between the world's 4.8 billion unwired people and their 2.2 billion plugged-in counterparts."Two-thirds of the world's population or about 4.8 billion people don't have the internet right now. "And some of them are living in remote places, but some of them are actually living right here in New Zealand, and we think that Project Loon can play a big role in connecting many of those unconnected people," explained Project Loon founder Richard DeVaul, an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) -trained scientist.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.Project leader Mike Cassidy explained how people on the ground would receive the Internet."For someone on the ground to use the Loon service, they need a small antenna about the size of a softball on the side of their house, and they just plug their computer into that antenna, and they get internet from the sky," Cassidy said.The first person to get Google Balloon Internet access this week was Charles Nimmo, a farmer and entrepreneur in the small town of Leeston, New Zealand.He was one of 50 locals who signed up to be a tester for a project that was so secret, no one would explain to them what was happening.Technicians came to the volunteers' homes and attached to the outside walls bright red receivers the size of basketballs and resembling giant Google map pins.Nimmo got the Internet for about 15 minutes before the balloon transmitting it sailed on past.His first stop on the Web was to check out the weather because he wanted to find out if it was an optimal time for "crutching" his sheep, a term he explained to thetechnicians refers to removing the wool around sheep's rear ends.Nimmo is among the many rural folk, even in developed countries, that can't get broadband access.After ditching his dial-up four years ago in favour of satellite internet service, he's found himself stuck with bills that sometimes exceed 1,000 US dollars in a single month.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 km apart bounce signals up to the balloons.The signals would hop forward, from one balloon to the next, along a backbone of up to five balloons.Each balloon would provide internet service for an area twice the size of New York City, about 1,250 sq km , and terrain is not a challenge.There are plenty of catches, including a requirement that anyone using Google Balloon internet would need a receiver plugged into their computer in order to receive the signal.Google is not talking costs at this point, although they're striving to make both the balloons and receivers as inexpensive as possible, dramatically less than laying cables.Christchurch was a symbolic launch site because some residents were cut off from online information for weeks following a 2011 earthquake that killed 185 people.Google believes balloon access could help places suffering natural disasters get quickly back online.