Project Loon: Google’s quest to bring internet to the world with a fleet of balloons – The Verge

Google works with Australia’s biggest carrier to test Project Loon balloons

2014-11-17T03:29:47-05:00

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Project Loon, Google's ambitious plan to bring internet to the entire world by way of a network of high-altitude balloons, is preparing to launch a series of test flights in Australia. The tests will see 20 balloons launched across western Queensland and will be the first to be conducted in the country when they begin in December. Google has partnered with a wireless carrier to beam internet to the ground below - the flights are being run in partnership with Australia's largest telecoms company, Telstra.

Google announced earlier this year that it would join forces with wireless companies around the world to make Project Loon a reality. The s …

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Google Loon Wi-Fi balloon creates panic in New Zealand

2014-06-20T06:50:18-04:00

When Google began testing its Wi-Fi enabling balloons, the company probably wasn't expecting to cause panic in New Zealand. The Wall Street Journal writes that the country's emergency services were contacted on Friday after one of the tech giant's balloons was mistaken for a crashing plane. A rescue helicopter was sent to investigate the presumed wreckage, which was reported to be seen off the east coast of New Zealand's South Island.

Google has confirmed that one of its balloons had indeed landed in the sea. The Wall Street Journal was later told that it was difficult to keep balloons in one place because of wind conditions. Revealed last y …

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Google wants to start beaming internet from its high-altitude balloons next year

2014-06-16T11:59:07-04:00

One year ago this Saturday, Google first presented its plans for Project Loon, a program aimed at blanketing the globe in internet from connected balloons hovering high above the earth. Since then, Google has only given a few updates about its ambitious plan, but today it tells Wired that it has a lot in store for Project Loon over the next year. Namely, that includes actually getting the program up and running and having real people use it. "On Loon's two-year birthday, I would hope, instead of running experiments, we'll have a more or less permanent set of balloons," Google X leader Astro Teller tells Wired. "In one or several countries, y …

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Google’s Project Loon suffers accident as balloon takes out power lines

2014-06-03T18:36:05-04:00

Google has confirmed that a balloon involved in its Project Loon struck power lines and knocked out electricity for some residents of a Washington town last week. The company told NBC News that the balloon was "in the process of a controlled landing" at around 1AM when it took out a small number of electrical lines. Prior to the descent, Google notified FAA officials of the landing to avoid any risk of interference with nearby air traffic.

Unfortunately, Google has no way of ensuring its balloons won't wreak havoc once they're closer to the ground; there's little the company can do about unexpected wind gusts, for example. Responding to the …

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Google will partner with wireless carriers to make Project Loon a reality

2014-05-06T13:54:07-04:00

Google's Project Loon aims to bring balloon-powered internet to remote regions around the world, and that's an ambitious goal any way you slice it. But we're starting to hear more about how Google plans to make its moonshot idea a reality. At the TechCrunch Disrupt NY conference earlier today, Googler Astro Teller revealed that the company actually went through a last-minute change in strategy before Project Loon was publicly announced.

The Google X team had spent six months negotiating with "large companies" to buy harmonized spectrum. "We thought this was absolutely critical to the project and we wanted to get it done before we launched," …

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Google’s balloons versus Facebook’s drones: the dogfight to send internet from the sky

2014-03-07T11:25:01-05:00

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Earlier this week, news broke that Facebook was working on a possible acquisition of Titan Aerospace, a company that produces solar-powered drones. These aircraft can travel in around the globe, relying on the sun for power to stay aloft for years at a time. They carry a payload of up to 250 pounds. Why does a social network need a high-tech satellite? Reportedly, Facebook wants to bring internet access to parts of the developing world that haven't built out the infrastructure for web access on the ground.

That's a noble mission, although Facebook certainly has a bigger business agenda as well. Most interestingly, the move means that Facebo …

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Google shows how Project Loon could ride wind currents to keep balloons evenly spaced

2013-09-01T01:22:05-04:00

Anyone looking to poke a hole in Project Loon - Google's ambitious project to use balloons to bring internet access to remote regions of the world - would likely point out that you can't keep a balloon in one spot. Google has an answer for that, of course. The Project Loon team says it could use wind currents at different levels of the stratosphere to control where balloons move and ensure that the "flock" remains evenly spaced out. That, in turn, would make sure that people down below don't have to wait for one of the airborne antennas to pass overhead before loading the internet.

Dan Piponi of Project Loon explains the technique by showin …

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Google’s balloon-powered internet needs testers in California

2013-08-20T15:31:03-04:00

Google X's Project Loon intends to bring internet access to remote areas around the world through giant connected balloons - but while the project's aspirations may be to help abroad, it isn't going far from home for its next test run. Google is asking residents of California's Central Valley for help in determining how robust the balloons' internet connections are. Volunteers selected by Google will have a Loon antenna installed in their home or business, and when a balloon on a test run flies overhead, it'll start stress testing the connection to see how it holds up.

Google had already begun an initial public test of Project Loon when it …

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Why Google thinks it can solve a big balloon problem with big data

2013-08-13T12:32:24-04:00

Google X, a secretive division of the company that's working on futuristic "moonshot" projects, unveiled a bizarre effort in June called "Project Loon:" an effort to beam internet access to remote regions of the globe from balloons that drift all over the planet. Unfortunately, balloons don't have a good track record for staying in the air very long, which presents some non-traditional problems for the internet-age company. ButÂ as Wired's Stephen Levy writes in a new feature on Project Loon, Google thinks its big data chops can help it solve centuries-old problems of flight. "Once we see how much better, cheaper, and safer we can make thing …

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Bill Gates says Google’s internet balloons are ‘not going to uplift the poor’

2013-08-08T07:35:30-04:00

Bill Gates has questioned whether Google's Project Loon, an effort to bring giant internet-giving balloons to less-developed countries, is really that good of an idea. During an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Gates was asked whether he thought bringing internet to parts of the world would help solve problems. "When you're dying of malaria, I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not sure how it'll help you."

"When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there's no website that relieves that."

Gates' nonprofit organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has worked extensively to try to rid developing nations of malaria. "When a …

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