Google is launching huge balloons to bring the Internet to remote and difficult terrain — think mountain ranges, archipelagos and jungles — beginning with New Zealand.
Last week, Google launched 30 Internet-enabling balloons in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, with plans to launch 20 more. The balloons, which resemble white, effervescent jellyfish, use a combination of wind, solar power and "complex algorithms" to stay in a fixed part of the sky, says project leader Mike Cassidy. The balloons communicate with antennas placed on the ground tens of thousands of feet below to provide Internet access to those areas.
The balloons are similar to the Internet-powered blimps Google has been testing on a smaller scale in parts of Africa and Asia. Initiatives developed by Google and other parties have also looked to satellites and highly placed antennas to achieve the same ends. Google has been working on this particular project, dubbed "Project Loon," for two years, according to Wired.
Google says its ultimate goal is to bring Internet to the two-thirds of the world that do not have or simply can't afford Internet access.
By Lauren Indvik Mashable
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