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Google Ready To Unleash Thousands of Balloons In Project Loon
jfruh writes Google has figured out how to produce an Internet-broadcast balloon in a few hours, and is on the verge of unleashing Project Loon onto the world. The project, which will work with ISPs to beam LTE cellular signals to remote regions that don't have Internet access, will be working with local ISPs rather than selling broadband directly to customers.
If local ISPs are involved, then what the fuck is the point of this? Why the fuck is there still this useless ISP middleman? For crying out loud, this whole problem exists in the first place because the local ISPs weren't able or willing to invest in the infrastructure needed to provide Internet access to these regions. So why the fuck should they still be involved? Cut the middleman out, for crying out loud!
by Nena: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9...
Especially when it is in the title of the article in 50 point font.
I guess ITWorld doesn't have a spellchecker.
I sent the author an email, hope he likes it.
Blah!!!
Google Press Release - "We weren't expecting wind" - some time in the next few days ...
Google want to be best buddies with ISPs. They do consume more bandwidth than any other company on the planet, after all.
In 5 years, we'll be laughing at how stupid this whole idea was.
correction: in 5 years, we will be bowing down to google overlords.(they probably wont be any worse than our current government)
So when I'm laughing at them in 5 years, I can laugh at you too.
I think a better name is order.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
That's why they named it "Project Loon".
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Where do we have to go next to find a place not infested with radio waves? North/South poles? Middle of the ocean?
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Rather than waste money on balloons, why not keep the working version of Google Maps alive?
I think it is at least in part because the cell phone companies already have the customer base and billing infrastructure, and Google does not want to 'ensure' coverage everywhere, just add to it as much as possible.
Time to pull all my data off your servers and never use you again. All they do now is failed social experiments, kill their good old products, and release or replace them with shitty bloated versions of their former selves. Hangouts is an abomination in privacy and design. New Google maps is bloated and sucks. Chrome doesn't get the top spot anymore in any performance benchmarks. Google is a shitty bloated company now.
of irreplaceable helium. Squander it now so future generations can't have any. Thanks, Google.
I haven't had the time to read over all the new FCC rules regarding Net Neutrality yet...but perhaps there's something in there about classifications of wireless networks versus data providers?
Google consumes little to no bandwidth on the ISP end of things, that's all consumed by you and me. All Googles bandwidth consumption is on the backbone side of things, which they pay dearly for.
--- Keep the choice with the user..
LTE isn't free, you can't use the frequencies if you're not a licensed carrier. Presumably, it is easier for Google to make a deal with existing carriers who have the license rather than seek a license themselves for each and every country.
If local ISPs are involved, then what the fuck is the point of this?
Yep, that's the question, isn't it? My local WISP (Digital Path) doesn't even answer support requests reliably, although billing is as reliable as the sunrise. How could this jerkoff waste of time move possibly help me, an actual customer with a crap last mile?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Companies like Google and Microsoft are ISPs to themselves. According to you, If they consume more bandwidth than the planet by volume why do they need a 3rd party, who has the most cheapest bulk volume?? Where's the intelligence here anymore?
That's not how IP networking works. Bandwidth isn't consumed by the source or the destination endpoint alone, but by the combination of both source and destination endpoints and by the routing path between them as determined by routing choices in the backbone routers.
In fact, Google has more of a role in determining paths and levels of bandwidth utilization than the end user does, because Google can choose its peerings and hence to a large extent the backbone routing to the user, whereas the user has no such flexibility at their endpoint. Also, Google uses the CDN approach to bring its source endpoints as close as possible to the end user, so the company directly controls its bandwidth consumption. It does so because it uses such enormous amounts of bandwidth that efficient endpoint positioning matters a lot.
So no, Google is very much in the business of consuming tons of bandwidth every time it is in communication with a user, for example during a Youtube download.
No sane foreign government will allow any U.S. controlled balloons stuffed with electronics in its airspace.
A tax-free government funded entirely by mandatory advertising brain implants that show you a mental video ad once a minute.
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All the balloons will be lost because no one can use the awful new Google Maps interface!
Without ISPs there'd be no internet.
If local ISPs are involved, then what the fuck is the point of this?
Not really ISPs, at least as we traditionally think of them. Mobile network operators.
Why the fuck is there still this useless ISP middleman?
The MNO in question isn't the middleman, it's the service provider. It provides service to the balloons, which relay it to regions that are too remote to service now.
For crying out loud, this whole problem exists in the first place because the local ISPs weren't able or willing to invest in the infrastructure needed to provide Internet access to these regions.
No, most of these regions aren't served because it's uneconomical. It's not that no one is willing to invest, it's that it's not an "investment" if you know up front that the ROI will be negative. Putting up a bunch of cell towers to serve remote African farmers, for example, doesn't pan out economically because there's no way the farmers can afford to pay high enough fees to cover the costs of all the infrastructure. Project Loon aims to fix this by radically lowering the cost of serving those regions, to a point where it is economical, so the fees the people in the region can afford to pay are sufficient to make serving them profitable.
As for why Google is partnering with MNOs rather than deploying their own connectivity? I don't know but I'd guess a couple of reasons. First, I expect it will be feasible to scale faster by partnering with entities who already have a lot of the infrastructure in place, particularly when you consider all of the legal and regulatory hurdles (which in many areas means knowing who to bribe, and how -- Google, like most American companies, would not be very good at that). Second, by working through local companies Google will avoid getting into power struggles with the local governments. Google is helping their local businesses to grow, not replacing them.
(Disclaimer: I work for Google, but I don't know anything more about this than what I see/read in the public press.)
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
http://www.google.com/loon/where/
http://youtu.be/HOndhtfIXSY
Pretty awesome.
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I asked directly the question to a quite high-level Google staff member (I don't know exactly how high), and she didn't actually answer it but diplomatically; but an answer I got by people working in the field who heard me was that right of aerial passage belongs to each country, and in each country the lobbying power of the local ISPs is much higher than Google's...
So there was no way they could cut the middleman and still have a right of passage for their balloons.
ISPs are protected enterprises for many reasons. Google will not have permission to fly the balloons without some strings attached.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Please put some near Cuba so that the technology donated by organizations such as Roots of Hope can help Cuba avoid a collapse from a pseudo-communist totalitarian plutocracy like the Soviet Union to a pseudo-capitalist totalitarian plutocracy like China.
LTE isn't free, you can't use the frequencies if you're not a licensed carrier. Presumably, it is easier for Google to make a deal with existing carriers who have the license rather than seek a license themselves for each and every country.
Balloons are short lived...
At this point it is an experiment so no need to own or be part of the cell service infrastructure.
This is not a 7x24x365.24 class service.
At some point this could become an important service in the event
of an emergency. It may also be valuable over places like the Black
Rock Desert for about one week a year.
And yes some sparse parts of the world may find value long term.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.