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Google Is Using Light Beam Tech To Connect Rural India To the Internet (techcrunch.com)
Google is preparing to use light beams to bring rural areas of the planet online after it announced to a planned rollout in India. From a report: The firm is working with a telecom operator in Indian state Andhra Pradesh, home to over 50 million people, to use Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC), a technology that uses beams of light to deliver high-speed, high-capacity connectivity over long distances. Now partner AP State FiberNet will introduce 2,000 FSOC links starting from January to add additional support to its network backbone in the state. The Google project is aimed at "critical gaps to major access points, like cell-towers and WiFi hotspots, that support thousands of people," Google said. The initiative ties into a government initiative to connect 12 million households to the internet by 2019, the U.S. firm added.
Two big high tech flashlights :), looks like limited distance and fog is a problem. FSOC
I read the article. It was short on technical specifics. So I looked it up on wikipedia. Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC).
So what makes them choose this as a better choice than older proven line-of-sight technologies like Microwave radio relay. Microwave formed the backbone of AT&T and MCI long-lines and had enough umph to carry live video. Does the light relay system really have that much more bandwidth than microwave? FSOC looks inferior to me. Shorter distance (a few hundred meters vs hundreds of kilometers for mw and more attenuation with weather (fog, rain).
Iknowrite?! Can you believe those greedy assholes are going out of their way to innovate and try to bring internet (and all the knowledge and human connection that entails) to a part of the world that lives in abject poverty? What real stinkers they must be! Screw you, Google, and take your kindness and innovation and everything else and just shove it!