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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?
...Each balloon can service an area of 1,930 miles...
How about
Each balloon can service an area of 1,930 square miles...
Bold and additions mine...
What say now brown cow? Reminds me of the laser.
I don't read AC
Seriously... How is Tesla sending hundreds of its Powerwall battery systems Puerto Rico.. just a marketing ploy? Tesla started sending hundreds of its standalone power banks, and some have already arrived while more are en route.
A physical product that works well in the field.
The grid is down and it will take a long time get a lot the Puerto Rico areas back on a grid that currently doesn't exist now. The powerwall is recharged by solar.
What good is a cell phone when you need power now and can't even charge a cell phone. And you need power for other necessities more than a Cell phone where they tell you help is not available now.
Just wonder what happens to the ability to communicate when really rough weather comes in?
;)
Everything works really great in a calm pristine environment. But maybe infrastructure is like coding, it is the exceptions that get you
I recall reading this article a few years ago while staying at my sister's place in Merced and wondering if this could be done for PR . . . . I guess it can. Cool. http://www.mercedsunstar.com/n...
Because of inertia and reluctance to leave older, established technologies, it's not often that you get a chance to try out a widescale deployment of a theoretical new technology in a developed nation. Implementing it in some place like Africa wouldn't stress it as much as a developed nation would, so the results and conclusions aren't always applicable to a different market. This is actually a great opportunity for them to do a real-world test of whether this balloon cellular idea works as well as it does on paper in a first world nation.
Google is probably as anxious to get some real-world data from a widescale implementation, as Puerto Rico is to restore cellular service. And then they can know if this is something worth pursuing in the future, or if there's some unforeseen fly in the ointment which will lead them to shelve the project.
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Where should I send the invoice?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
What does it matter WHY?
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.
What good is a cell phone? How about calling 911? Or doing business? Coordinating reconstruction? Medical advice? Telephones are pretty critical infrastructure - it's hard to think of anything more so. And they're easy to charge even without mains power - you can charge from car and truck batteries, solar cells, generators - all are sufficient to charge lots of phones, because they don't need much power.
"Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."
What good is a cell phone when you need power now and can't even charge a cell phone. And you need power for other necessities more than a Cell phone where they tell you help is not available now.
I think of the reports of the "Cajun Navy" in Texas that went out to rescue people stranded by flood waters, or in need of supplies to shelter in place. The people in the "Cajun Navy" were volunteers that were not part of any larger rescue organization, they had no real plan in place and no real hierarchy. These people were able to coordinate over cell phones and internet because cell service survived or was restored quickly. The people in need of help may have cell phones in need of a charge, or no cell phone at all, but the people coming in to help could use the cell service to be more effective.
The people that planned ahead for a smaller storm, with hand crank cell phone chargers among their survival kit, would certainly appreciate cell phone service to contact family and let them know all is well (which would prevent a diversion of resources for a search and rescue of such people) or if they are in need of supplies then they can contact others to assist in their coordination.
At a minimum we have people in need of communication for their mental well being. Humans are complex social creatures and even knowing that help is not available now is better than knowing nothing at all. People need to know that there are other people out there that have not given up and are trying. Maybe some of these people will use the cell phone service to watch cat videos, but then at least this distracts from how cold and hungry they are.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
A known spying organization is deploying balloons to help the Puerto Ricans communicate in their time of need. This need is genuine and I'm sure everyone is grateful for the assistance. Therefore this sounds very nice and a good thing to do for any organization. But in light of what Google does with its services (email accounts, blog hosting, phone call proxy/rerouting, etc.) and the article's lack of describing any restrictions on this generous service, I wonder what else will the organization do with the data they get access to via this service? Are there conditions put on Alphabet to make sure this doesn't double as taking advantage of the needy?
Digital Citizen
Thas fanastic.
That's right, because USB ports in cars and plain old cigarette lighter car chargers and solar chargers and small generators that are already running critical equipment and the like simply do not exist.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
In a typical emergency, power will not be restored for atleast a week. During that time phone batteries will die out. We need technology to keep phone alive during that golden (rather critical) period to save lives, contact people, help supply management by/for victims of diaster on large scale. What good is the innovation in latest pixel or powerbank.
People could easily charge cell phones in that situation, a lot have cars. You dont even have to start them and waste gas to charge your phone from the car battery. Yank that battery out of the car, attach a car charger to it, you could likely get a months or more worth in charges off a single car battery.
Or leave the battery in place and use it the same way though the cars cigarette lighter, youll waste more power on the car's phantom loads in the accessory position, but could easily start the car every couple days to top off the battery.
I saw this being done quite frequently in Florida after Irma went though and we were without power days. People hanging out in their running cars for AC and to charge phones.
The plan as described appears to assume the balloons will stay in nearly same lat and long once launched or at least with in line of sight of PR. To find out of this is true or not for Puerto Rico, have a look at earth.net.org specifically over PR at 70 mbar pressure which corresponds roughly to the proposed height of these balloons. https://earth.nullschool.net/#... In fact the wind speed at that height is about 20 km/hr. So in 24 hours the balloons will travel about 500 km which is beyond line of site from where they were the day before. Also PR is about 50 x 150 km. The only way to impose some choice about where the balloon goes is by changing the amount of gas in the envelope to cause the balloon to rise or fall to altitudes where the wind velocity is different. Using earth.nullschool.net to see the winds velocities over PR for different heights, this approach doesn't look promising.
Each balloon will, one presumes, be anchored and communicated with by a long cable, right?
What's to keep all those military and news helicopters and aircraft from running into the cables? They can be quite hard to see, don't you know?
Big orange balls anchored every 50 feet vertically? Good luck with that.