Google Interested in Wireless Bandwidth Balloons

An anonymous reader writes "Google is reportedly looking into investing in or buying a company called Space Data, which provides wireless voice and data services to remote areas with a fleet of weather balloons fitted with transceivers." My mind is sorta tripping over how something like this could work, but I gotta admit that the idea is really cool.

Only a 24-hour lifespan?

[smooth wombat]

From the article:

Balloon-borne transceivers are launched every 8 to 12 hours and last for about 24 hours before bursting and floating gently back down to earth. Each box of tricks carries a $100 reward for whoever finds it and returns it safely.

That's an awful waste of resources not to mention what happens if someone is transmitting a signal when the balloon in your area pops? How much does all this constant launching and recovering cost compared to just putting in a tower despite the remoteness?

I can see using these balloons for limited times, such as emergencies, or battlefield conditions where there are no cell towers (as the article intimates) but for every day use? I don't think so.

And what is this 'floating gently back down to earth' stuff? Unless they have a parachute, the tranceiver will not be floating gently back down to earth when the balloon pops. It will be plummeting.

Re:Only a 24-hour lifespan?

[bugs2squash]

I think this is why HALE (High-Altitude Long-Endurance) Aircraft have been proposed as a more reasonable solution

Re:Why?

[the4thdimension]

Possibly just a publicity stunt? We know that google shot themselves into the limelight and now they must try to stay there. Creative ideas to bring internet access to rural areas keep your good name alive among many. I believe they are attempting to continue to be seen as the "good" company where as many tech-oriented folks look at Microsoft as the "bad" company. Image is everything and I think they are trying to keep it together. However, I agree that this seems to be a bit out there.

Re:Rural area

[SatanicPuppy]

Yea, it seems like it should be a lot easier to get more endurance out of these things than they're getting...The balloon idea is mainly interesting as a jump off for some basically autonomous station keeping signal platforms...A small blimp covered with solar cells or powered by a large betavoltaic [wikipedia.org] battery or something...

As long as they're just spamming platforms that last for a day or two, the idea is pretty much doomed. The loss rate is going to be astronomical, and sending guys out in a truck to pick 'em up is in no way cost efficient.

Re:Rural area

[Thansal]

wait, I got it!

Why don't we set up these polls that will have the hardware on top!

We just need to space them out nice and evenly, and we wouldn't have to worry (as much) about weather effects. Heck, why limit our selves to just just traditional internet access. I bet I could rig up some sort of portable radio that could make use of these polls.

I could call them PollRadios!

Yah! I am going to make MILLIONS!

So, seriously, what is the point of these balloons? I mean, I could see usages for it where you need to saturate an area with radio for a temporary time (for an always on type thing this just sounds way to cost prohibitive). Something like when if you have a manhunt (lost person/criminal/I don't care) going on in a wilderness area you could set up some sort of network with these things so that searchers could be in constant contact, and such.

The begining of the end of nice ping rates

[headbulb]

Mesh networks are interesting, but a wireless one that would be required would have way too many hops. Then the congestion on each hop would be high too.

Ping rates would go down the tubes.

Re:Helium Shortage

[Zach978]

According to the WSJ [wsj.com] they use hydrogen.

Re:Only a 24-hour lifespan?

[westlake]

And what is this 'floating gently back down to earth' stuff?

How many of the packages can they realistically expect to recover?

"Rural and remote" suggests difficult terrain, dense cover, lakes and ponds, and very few people. I don't think we are talking about the cornfields in Nebraska.

What most puzzles me is why Google wants to enter a market difficult and expensive to service, and with so little prospect of a significant return.

Airships are the way to go.

[blankoboy]

These disposable balloons, while a cute idea, are simply too hobby/garage level. Google, with giant coffers, need to think on a grander 'Bladerunneresque' scale. They should instead deploy manned/autonomous airships (blimps) to serve this purpose.

These airships could serve multiple purposes (among many others I'm sure Google's clever folks could come up with):

- Photography for Google Maps.
- Airvertising as another revenue source.
- Weather.