Stratospheric internet

The assembled balloon in Christchurch, New Zealand

Google has balloon crazy.

Hot on the heels of the blimp trials in sub-Saharan Africa, Google has this weekend arrived at New Zealand's Lake Tekapo to launch a helium filled balloon that has climbed 20 km up into the stratosphere.

Project Loon is all pretty hush-hush but Google has released some details of the mission. The Tekapo trial is the first of the proof of concept field tests - within minutes of launching the balloon it was in position and beaming internet to the ground crew, quaintly closeted in the living room of local resident.

Local resident helps with the test

The balloons are cheap to manufacture and potentially could stay airborne for hundreds of days at a time. They're solar powered so they don't need refuelling.  With a big enough swarm of these things they could provide internet from the skies to whole countries, continents or even the entire globe.

Beaming internet from the heavens removes a huge pile of the normal logistical obstacles - no topology to get in the way, no resource consents or infrastructure headaches. In times of disasters, like earthquakes and floods, a balloon service could quickly be deployed to fill the void left by terrestrial services knocked out by the catastrophe.

It's early days but this first trial is already being hailed as a success. It's been the talk of the weekend here in New Zealand with provincial residents, disgruntled at their lousy internet connectivity, getting very excited at the Loon tests.

Up, up and away for sky high wi-fi (Stuff)

Loon project brings the web to billions (NZ Herald)

Balloon powered internet (TechRadar)

Project Loon launches from the Canterbury Plains