Google Goes Ballooning
Filed in archive 700 MHz by jeff goldman on February 21, 2008

The Wall Street Journal's Amol Sharma today broke the news that Google is considering deploying wireless Internet via balloon, through a possible partnership with (or even an outright purchase of) Space Data Corp., which deploys balloons that support communication services for truckers and oil companies.
"About 36% of rural Americans don't have Internet connections," Sharma writes. "The problem is that it's expensive to string cable or build cellphone towers
in areas with so few customers. Space Data says a single balloon can serve an area otherwise requiring 40 cell towers."
"And as a BusinessWeek article from last month revealed, Space Data believes it can cover the whole country with a WiMax broadband network with just 370 balloons," writes Gizmodo's Sean Fallon. "Compare that with the 22,000 or so towers that would be necessary using traditional methods. It may be non-traditional but it is a dammed good idea. My mind has just been blown."
More here from Digital Trends ... more here from dBTechno ... more here from Electronista ... more here from Broadband Reports ... more here from Techtree.com ... more here from Computeworld ... and more here from MobHappy.
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