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Google's Loon Brings Internet-By-Balloon To Kenya (bbc.com)
A network of giant balloons will soon bring internet access to remote regions of rural Kenya. From a report: Google's sister-company Loon has announced its first commercial deal: partnering with Telkom Kenya to deliver connectivity to the region. The firm's antennae-dangling fleet will ride the wind high above parts of the African country. But experts have warned that the partnership could lead to a communications monopoly.
"experts have warned that the partnership could lead to a communications monopoly."
Well, yes, as in now there is no internet service provider and once this starts there will be one internet service provider. Yes, that's a monopoly. Yes, it's also a hell of a lot better than not having internet access.
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20km has a major advantage over satellites. Geosynchronous orbit is over 35k km and you have to go there and back both ways so roundtrip ping times are horrible. For reference, the circumference of a the earth is only 40k km so you can connect any two points on earth with less than 20k km of cable versus the 70k km needed for a geostationary connection.
LMFAO!!!
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
I have an idea.
Let's never do anything anywhere because there are people in the world who are hungry.
Let's halt all human progress until we can feed everyone.
Creimer, you are an idiot, stick to spamming affiliate links. Because you sick at discourse.
Pfft....here is actual footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
As if this wasn't a problem in most places in the USA.
Good point. They save on 50km of cable. Plus ping needs to go both ways. Forgot about that.
"Let's halt all human progress until we can feed everyone."
That sounds sensible to me.
There are just shy of a dozen companies which try to offer satellite Internet via LEO or MEO constellations. Of course, you can get satellite Internet today already, using geostationary satellites, but the latency is high.
That's cool, and even arguably on-topic (since it is about balloons, although not 20-km altitude communications balloons)... but how is it that a trip from Maine to Newfoundland gets called a "trans-Atlantic expedition"?
Trans-Saint-Lawrence-Seaway, maybe.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
They may save 50km of cable but they need to use 70km of air. That means they need to use more km, not less!
#DeleteFacebook
Oh good because we can feed everyone now.
We just don't because no one wants to pay for other people's bullshit. Our farms throw away enough to feed everyone needing food because it isn't "doesn't look as nice" but someone would have to pay to get it to where it needs to be.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Now 0bama can move back home and have internet service!
I'll volunteer to help him pack.
The minimum monthly wage for an unskilled laborer in Kenya (which is more than a lot of rural Kenyans make) is less than the $50 monthly cost of the cheapest plans from the two existing satellite internet providers.
Launching satellites is expensive and customers have to pay quite a bit to make that worthwhile. Launching a balloon is a hell of a lot cheaper.
Definitely. I am sure the unskilled laborers in Kenya will be happy with balloon Intenret.
Excellent! So we can restart human progress. I'll let the humans know.
What monopoly? They're balloons. Just train eagles or hawks or falcons or some other bird of prey to hunt the balloons and take them down. Bonus points for training birds on the endangered species list, so Google/Loon won't be able to take countermeasures.
I was actually being selfish when I brought this up. If we can get 3 billion people sewage and decent housing then their areas will be able to support going concerns that can employ those people and allow them to start business and justify having the internet. All of that is good for me. I want 3 billion more customers, how about you?
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Good point. They save on 50km of cable. Plus ping needs to go both ways. Forgot about that.
It's not the cabling. It's the 20 kilometers for a balloon versus the 35 THOUSAND kilometers for geostationary orbit. The ping time is 3 orders of magnitude smaller for a balloon versus satellite. Wires would still be faster than the balloons but over rough or sparsely populated areas, the balloons definitely have a niche and unlike satellite have actual usable ping times.