Google May Use Balloons as Cell Phone Towers
February 24, 2008 4:07 PM | Google | Comments (0)
| According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, Google is considering using balloons for wireless communications using Space Data Corporation current technologies. Space Data Corp. currently launches 10 balloons a day across the Southern United States to provide telecommunications services to oil companies and truckers. The balloons fly 20 miles into the stratosphere covering thousands of square miles below. Each balloon carries a payload of electronics, about the size of a shoebox that acts like a mini cell phone tower. The inexpensive balloons, about $50 each, are good for only 24 hours before they burst in the thin air of the upper atmosphere. The electronic gear is encased in a small Styrofoam box that drifts gently back to earth on tiny parachutes. |  |
The electronic gear cost about $1,500 which can be extremely challenging to receive. Space Data cannot predict exactly where the electronic gear will land and have 20 hobbyists with GPS devices to track them down.
Space Data has to constantly send up new balloons by hiring mechanics employed at small airports and farmers in the south.
Currently about 36% of rural Americans don't have Internet a connection which is a problem that regulators want to solve. It's expensive to string cable or build cell phone towers in these areas with so few customers. Space Data claims one balloon can serve an area otherwise requiring 40 cell towers.
It seems Google believes Space Data balloons can change the economics of offering cell phone and Internet services in remote areas.
For more information visit http://www.spacedata.net
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