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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...
They talk about how they need to regularly pick up and relaunch balloons when they come down. I don't see why they would need to design the balloons without any sort of reinflation system. The leak rate is tiny, right? So:
1. A little more solar panel area than they already need.
2. Hydrogen filled instead of helium filled.
3. Tiny container of sulfuric acid (hygroscopic - self-dilutes down to a given concentration with atmospheric moisture)
4. Electrolysis cell (sulfuric acid is used as the electrolyte in some types of electrolysis cells).
Problem solved. Sulfuric acid draws moisture from the air, and during the day the solar power electrolyzes it it to produce a minute trickle of hydrogen into the balloon, which replaces the minute trickle that leaks out. Your balloon's lifespan is now as long as your electronics and envelope last.
*Kid Rock runs for Senate* Democrats: We must run Kid Scissors.
Rather than waste money on balloons, why not keep the working version of Google Maps alive?
Not "infested" with radio waves?
Nowhere in this universe.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
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.
The leak rate is tiny, right?
You would hope so, but both helium and hydrogen escape fairly rapidly through many common materials.
Aside from leakage of He/H through the balloon, one tweak would be to start with Helium and replenish with Hydrogen. That way it is inherently less flammable, at least until it has been in the air for a while. Then guys with weaponized drones can use them for cool target practice.
I come here for the love
I did a little looking around to find out how much atmospheric moisture there is at 20km altitude, and it doesn't look like there's very much, especially away from the tropics.
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.)
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