Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) ambitious ‘Project Loon’ derived from the hot-air balloon-type of carrier used to provide last-mile internet connectivity to remote regions has now matured to deliver 4G LTE for periods closer to six months.
A Google Inc statement noted that the 2013 launched ‘Project Loon’ had now grown to be full-blown ‘cell tower in the sky’ capable of servicing areas as large as Rhode Island. And as it typical of most Google Inc services, there have been no announcement of dates on which these services will be launched. Merely the ongoing development of Project Loon appears to have crusted into a full-blown connectivity delivery gadget.
It is currently delivering internet services to schools in Brazil as well as New Zealand where it has twinned with cellular carrier Vodafone. In Australia it supports Telstra’s infrastructure to deliver internet to remote locations, while in Latin America it has teamed with Telefonica.
How’s Project Loon different from Google Fiber
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) choose to use its Project Loon more as a bridging technology to allow local internet service providers to run their cellular networks. Google Inc’s Project Loon Balloons receive signals from existing cell towers so that it can transmit them to smartphones as well as other tower-connected devices.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) claims that at present each Project Loon can roughly cover an area equivalent to 80 Km or roughly the size of Rhode Island. At another level, balloons themselves can interconnect leading to larger coverage in terms of area.
As is typical of Google Inc, the technology platform is what it is after. As Google officially comment, Telco’s which have a tower in a city, can use the loon balloon to cover the whole region, without additional infrastructure expansions, making the tie-up profitable.
Loon Balloon differs from Google Fiber which Google Inc offers within urban spaces running optic fibers for fast-paced internet connectivity. On the other hand Loon Balloon is twin-layered device of helium within which a smaller air-filled balloon maintains the buoyancy. The radio equipment on the balloon allows Google Mission Control software to track it in real-time.
