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.
