Google reveals plan to beam internet from balloons in stratosphere

Google today revealed plans to send balloons carrying internet-beaming antennas to the edge of space to beam the internet to two-thirds of the global population that currently has no web access.

The top-secret project was unveiled today in New Zealand, where up to 50 volunteer households are will start receiving the internet briefly on their home computers via translucent helium balloons that sail by on the wind 12 miles above Earth.

Scientists from the technology giant today released around 30 such test balloons flying 20 km above Christchurch in New Zealand, carrying on-board antennae linked to ground base stations.

Google hopes to hook the entire plant to the internet by launching internet-beaming antennas into the stratosphere aboard giant, jellyfish-shaped balloons.

Under project `Loon', as the initiative is called, the internet search giant, envisages launch of thousands of balloons to provide internet to remote corners of the world, allowing over 4 billion people with no access to get online.

It could be of great help after natural disasters, when existing communication infrastructure was impaired.

"Project Loon is an experimental technology for balloon-powered Internet access," the company said on its latest project from its clandestine Google (x), "where we work on radical, sci-fi-sounding technology solutions to solve really big world problems".

"Balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, can beam internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster," it added.

"It is very early days, but we think a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, might be a way to provide affordable internet access to rural, remote, and underserved areas down on earth below, or help after disasters, when existing communication infrastructure is affected."

Computers would control the balloons' altitude from the ground, keeping them moving along a desired channel by using different winds at different heights.

According to Google, past attempts to control balloons had involved tethering them or using expensive motors to keep them in place, but simply sailing with the winds was a radical approach.

Google says the balloons had the potential to provide internet access much more cheaply, quickly and widely than traditional underground fibre cables, but a downside was that computer users on the ground would need to install a receiver to get the signal.

Each balloon would beam down to an area about 1,250 square km, twice the size of New York City.