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Alphabet's Balloons Will Bring Cellphone Service To Puerto Rico (wired.com)
An anonymous reader writes:Hurricanes Irma and Maria wiped out more than 90 percent of the cellphone coverage on Puerto Rico. Now the FCC has given "Project Loon" permission to fly 30 balloons more than 12 miles above the island for the next six months, Wired reports, to temporarily replace the thousands of cellphone towers knocked down by the two hurricanes.
Each balloon can service an area of 1,930 miles, so the hope is to restore service to the entire island of Puerto Rico and parts of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In May Project Loon, part of Google's parent company Alphabet, deployed its technology in Peru and later provided emergency internet access there during serious flooding. (Those balloons were acually launched from Puerto Rico.) These new Project Loon balloons will be "relaying communications between Alphabet's own ground stations connected to the surviving wireless networks, and users' handsets," according to the article, which reports that eight wireless carriers in Puerto Rico have already consented to the arrangement.
Each balloon can service an area of 1,930 miles, so the hope is to restore service to the entire island of Puerto Rico and parts of the U.S. Virgin Islands. In May Project Loon, part of Google's parent company Alphabet, deployed its technology in Peru and later provided emergency internet access there during serious flooding. (Those balloons were acually launched from Puerto Rico.) These new Project Loon balloons will be "relaying communications between Alphabet's own ground stations connected to the surviving wireless networks, and users' handsets," according to the article, which reports that eight wireless carriers in Puerto Rico have already consented to the arrangement.
or is this just for good public relations/"corporate social responsibility" ?
sorry if my skepticism about all thing alphabet, and other big techs, offends anyone; i just can't be blind to their past track record.
btw, given we have been hyped about these balloons for years, why is there no real wide deployments(announced several times in multiple countries) up to now?
I agree with almost everything you have said, but I'd like to address the last sentence: people on the island right now are using cell phones when they have access to send text messages (which require must less electric power). Some people have been keeping their cell phones off except for when they know they are near a functioning tower, and some people have been using cars to recharge them. I agree that at this point, many of those have likely worn out, especially because many people didn't bother doing this because they weren't anywhere near a functioning tower at all, but it isn't like there's no help from this. This also combines with the fact that damage isn't the same everywhere: some places have power but no cell coverage even as others have the reverse. So you are correct that Tesla's work will be helpful, but this will be too.