Google[x] Project Loon: Balloon Powered Internet access

Project loon is the new experimental service from Google Lab Google[X].  This project will provide the Balloon Powered Internet access to remote areas. New Zealand is the first country to get this experimental balloon Wireless internet. The remote areas – jungles, archipelagos, mountains are very challenging to install and provide Internet connectivity. The cost of the infrastructure is also high.

To solve these kind of problems, Google has launched this Project Loon. Google said in the blog,

“We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below.” also added that ” It’s very early days, but we’ve built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster”

Project Loon has already launched 30 balloons this week in Canterbury area of New Zealand with at least 50 testers trying to connect to them. These balloons have intelligent software that predicts the wind speeds and controls the balloon movement. Balloons uses the solar power and wind power to charge the battery

Each Balloon covers the 40Km of area and able to provide 3G speed or faster than it. if you are in the Canterbury area of New Zealand, you can request an invite to connect with Google Balloon. The project will be launched in countries at the same latitude as New Zealand.

This highly experimental technology has the Goal of providing the internet connectivity to all.

What do you think about this Project Loon?