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On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna?
They already have millions of servers. Make sure your brain is set to "realistic" in the sense of what a billions of dollars company can accomplish and not just in the sense of what can I tool around with in my garage. That's not to say I know they'll succeed, but if they're trying they probably did their homework on feasibility.
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On June 15 2013 20:12 oBlade wrote:Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna? They already have millions of servers. Make sure your brain is set to "realistic" in the sense of what a billions of dollars company can accomplish and not just in the sense of what can I tool around with in my garage. That's not to say I know they'll succeed, but if they're trying they probably did their homework on feasibility.
Or this is just pr. It is the perfect combo of altruism + technology + cute/out there solution + doesn't seem feasible in the long run. They know it's gonna turn heads.
Yeah im sure it is something they kinda want to do but i don't think they are really in it to provide stable internet to all of africa and asia.
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On June 15 2013 20:21 skyrunner wrote:Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 20:12 oBlade wrote:On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna? They already have millions of servers. Make sure your brain is set to "realistic" in the sense of what a billions of dollars company can accomplish and not just in the sense of what can I tool around with in my garage. That's not to say I know they'll succeed, but if they're trying they probably did their homework on feasibility. Or this is just pr. It is the perfect combo of altruism + technology + cute/out there solution + doesn't seem feasible in the long run. They know it's gonna turn heads. Yeah im sure it is something they kinda want to do but i don't think they are really in it to provide stable internet to all of africa and asia.
Except they have spent millions on this alerady, and will be spending a few millions more.
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On June 15 2013 20:23 Man with a Plan wrote:Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 20:21 skyrunner wrote:On June 15 2013 20:12 oBlade wrote:On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna? They already have millions of servers. Make sure your brain is set to "realistic" in the sense of what a billions of dollars company can accomplish and not just in the sense of what can I tool around with in my garage. That's not to say I know they'll succeed, but if they're trying they probably did their homework on feasibility. Or this is just pr. It is the perfect combo of altruism + technology + cute/out there solution + doesn't seem feasible in the long run. They know it's gonna turn heads. Yeah im sure it is something they kinda want to do but i don't think they are really in it to provide stable internet to all of africa and asia. Except they have spent millions on this alerady, and will be spending a few millions more.
Millions wouldn't make a dent in the budget they have for R&D/their own advertising.
I'm interested to see where it goes all the same.
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I don't care about the politics and privacy stuff that people seem to be paranoid about these days, I just find this shit cool, if only for the technical aspect of it. Well played, Google.
On June 15 2013 20:21 skyrunner wrote:Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 20:12 oBlade wrote:On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna? They already have millions of servers. Make sure your brain is set to "realistic" in the sense of what a billions of dollars company can accomplish and not just in the sense of what can I tool around with in my garage. That's not to say I know they'll succeed, but if they're trying they probably did their homework on feasibility. Or this is just pr. It is the perfect combo of altruism + technology + cute/out there solution + doesn't seem feasible in the long run. They know it's gonna turn heads. Yeah im sure it is something they kinda want to do but i don't think they are really in it to provide stable internet to all of africa and asia.
Not a lot of Google products are "PR" though. Their shit just works and is generally pretty useful and innovative. The definition of a good product.
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So....anyone think this is a prelude to this when they were read about the project?
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9070 Posts
next stop is implementing the technology in cell phones so they can receive the signal and we can wave goodbye to all telecoms around the world (which are already dying anyway)
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On June 15 2013 21:55 disciple wrote:
next stop is implementing the technology in cell phones so they can receive the signal and we can wave goodbye to all telecoms around the world (which are already dying anyway)
and say hello to the only telecom....google >.>
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9070 Posts
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Global supply of helium is not very high, so I don't see this being sustainable nor very cheap.
Plus, if they plan to fly the balloons in the south hemisphere, wouldn't it mean that most of the time they will cover unhabited places of the Pacific/Atlantic/Indian Ocean?
On June 15 2013 21:55 disciple wrote:
next stop is implementing the technology in cell phones so they can receive the signal and we can wave goodbye to all telecoms around the world (which are already dying anyway)
Telecoms dying? Many poeple I know pay like 50$ a month to use their smartphone, so I don't think it's "dying".
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On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna?
- A large part of Earth is made of water we do not care about.
- It's designed for areas where you can't build said stations. Stations also need employees for maintenance.You also have less problems with setting them up in other countries space.
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How many balloons would they need for global internet coverage?
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On June 15 2013 23:03 Orangered wrote:
How many balloons would they need for global internet coverage?
Earth is ~510,072,000 km2, with land covering ~148,940,000 km2 (29.2%).
148,940,000 km2/1250 km2 = ~119152 for total, constant coverage.
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Sounds Utopian, but I think its cool. I just hope Google does not become Skynet!
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Google X is like the spiritual successor to Bell Labs. This is some seriously crazy shit lol.
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On June 15 2013 20:26 Dfgj wrote:Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 20:23 Man with a Plan wrote:On June 15 2013 20:21 skyrunner wrote:On June 15 2013 20:12 oBlade wrote:On June 15 2013 18:48 Rassy wrote:
o This is realy nice if they manage to make this work
6. The transmitter on each balloon would beam down the Internet to an area about 1,250 square kilometers (780 square miles) - twice the size of New York City.
Then they will need a ton of baloons lol, like 1 million to cover the entire earth?
Not sure this is realistic, a baloon in the air every 30-40 km.
Wouldnt it be cheaper to just make ground stations with big antenna? They already have millions of servers. Make sure your brain is set to "realistic" in the sense of what a billions of dollars company can accomplish and not just in the sense of what can I tool around with in my garage. That's not to say I know they'll succeed, but if they're trying they probably did their homework on feasibility. Or this is just pr. It is the perfect combo of altruism + technology + cute/out there solution + doesn't seem feasible in the long run. They know it's gonna turn heads. Yeah im sure it is something they kinda want to do but i don't think they are really in it to provide stable internet to all of africa and asia. Except they have spent millions on this alerady, and will be spending a few millions more. Millions wouldn't make a dent in the budget they have for R&D/their own advertising. I'm interested to see where it goes all the same.
A large deal of Google's projects aren't so much about changing the world solo, but being disruptive and spurring changes from other existing companies.
Take the Google Fibre project. They're not trying to provide internet to all of USA, they're trying to create competition in a sector that's essentially a monopoly for a select few companies.
The general idea is that if this works, and it works well, Google won't be the only ones making this happen.
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I've been in a cynical mood lately (about everything), but this project put a smile on my face.
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On June 15 2013 22:51 Leafty wrote:Global supply of helium is not very high, so I don't see this being sustainable nor very cheap. Plus, if they plan to fly the balloons in the south hemisphere, wouldn't it mean that most of the time they will cover unhabited places of the Pacific/Atlantic/Indian Ocean? Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 21:55 disciple wrote:
next stop is implementing the technology in cell phones so they can receive the signal and we can wave goodbye to all telecoms around the world (which are already dying anyway) Telecoms dying? Many poeple I know pay like 50$ a month to use their smartphone, so I don't think it's "dying".
People are still using Telecoms, but the technology to replace them is here. Imagine if you get free internet. Most people use Facebook or Twitter rather than SMS, and i doubt that it'll take long before people use skype anyway.
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On June 15 2013 22:51 Leafty wrote:Global supply of helium is not very high, so I don't see this being sustainable nor very cheap. Plus, if they plan to fly the balloons in the south hemisphere, wouldn't it mean that most of the time they will cover unhabited places of the Pacific/Atlantic/Indian Ocean? Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 21:55 disciple wrote:
next stop is implementing the technology in cell phones so they can receive the signal and we can wave goodbye to all telecoms around the world (which are already dying anyway) Telecoms dying? Many poeple I know pay like 50$ a month to use their smartphone, so I don't think it's "dying".
yeah this is a very good point - there's no way this is sustainable if these are helium balloons. Even advanced scientific research is hurting for lack of helium right now. Google's gonna need to think of something other than helium to put in here if they want this to keep going more than a few years, maybe hot air? Or if these balloons are relatively cheap maybe they could fill them with hydrogen instead and just accept that some percentage will explode, that's the best thing I can think of atm.
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On June 16 2013 03:30 strongandbig wrote:Show nested quote +On June 15 2013 22:51 Leafty wrote:Global supply of helium is not very high, so I don't see this being sustainable nor very cheap. Plus, if they plan to fly the balloons in the south hemisphere, wouldn't it mean that most of the time they will cover unhabited places of the Pacific/Atlantic/Indian Ocean? On June 15 2013 21:55 disciple wrote:
next stop is implementing the technology in cell phones so they can receive the signal and we can wave goodbye to all telecoms around the world (which are already dying anyway) Telecoms dying? Many poeple I know pay like 50$ a month to use their smartphone, so I don't think it's "dying". yeah this is a very good point - there's no way this is sustainable if these are helium balloons. Even advanced scientific research is hurting for lack of helium right now. Google's gonna need to think of something other than helium to put in here if they want this to keep going more than a few years, maybe hot air? Or if these balloons are relatively cheap maybe they could fill them with hydrogen instead and just accept that some percentage will explode, that's the best thing I can think of atm.
That sounds like the making for an excellent bit of dystopic fiction: in a world in which exploding balloons bring internet to the masses, a young boy with a latex allergy and a destiny bound for greatness is born.
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EPT
