I’ve been tracking Google very closely for years now and they don’t like to do things traditionally – be it their IPO or the Organizational hierarchy where Engineers are ranked higher compared to Management / Accounting folks in the company. Larry Page in an interview early this year had said,
Our job is to think of the thing you haven’t thought of yet that you really need. And by definition, if our competitors knew that thing, they wouldn’t tell it to us or anybody else. I think just our strengths, our weaknesses, our opportunities are different than any other company
Continuing their innovation in serving High Speed Internet, Google is looking to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds that provide Internet access to the earth below. Even though the Internet has become the great transformational force shaping society and economy, for two out of three people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach to many, as the cost of an Internet connection remains high in developing economies.
How Project Loon Internet Works ?
Google is using ISM Band Frequency which is free from the ambit of regulators and Government across the world. The experimental system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today’s 3G networks or faster, and is developing solutions to control the path of the freely sailing balloons using wind and solar power, which would eventually make it possible to connect rural, remote, and underserved areas, and help communications after natural disasters. Google has started a pilot programme in Canterbury, New Zealand with close to 50 testers trying out the system. Each balloon can provide 3G Speed Mobile Internet 40 Kms in Diameter.
With Project Loon, Google is going to Disrupt the Telecom Tower Infrastructure Companies’ Business Model as Google would have definitely filed / secured their Patents & related Right of use. Also with Power being sourced from Sun and Wind, Google has helped its mentor John Doerr realize his Big Dream of providing Clean / Green High Speed Broadband.