Washington
Post: Google has launched an ambitious project to provide
internet access to remote areas of the world. Project Loon
consists of a network of giant balloons that use a combination
of wind and solar power to navigate at altitudes twice as high
as commercial planes. Significantly cheaper than satellites,
the balloons carry equipment to beam internet access to the
ground. For its pilot project launched over the weekend, Google
sent 30 of the balloons over the Canterbury area of New
Zealand, which is mostly rural. Google's engineers will use
complex algorithms and massive computing power to maneuver the
balloons to where they are needed. It has been estimated that
two out of three people in the world lack internet access. For
a company such as Google, that represents a large, untapped
potential pool of consumers for its products and services,
which include the leading Web search engine, email service, and
internet video site.
