Google has been working hard to offer a new broadband Internet service. First it started rolling out Google Fiber in several cities that has slowly and steadily grown to more and more markets.
That gave way to Google’s new plans to roll out gigabyte Wi-Fi networks that will allow quicker and less expensive roll out of high speed wireless Internet to more markets.
Now Google is working on a new system that is taking a major step forward this week. Google has a real plan to offer Internet by balloon that can quickly offer fast, reliable Internet to widespread areas of the United States.
This week Google announced that it has made advancements in machine learning techniques applied to the division’s navigation algorithms, which means they’re now able to get “teams of balloons to cluster together over a particular region of the earth.” Project Loon balloons operate 12 miles above the planet.
“This has enormous implications for Loon’s economic and operational viability: we can put together a Loon network over a particular region in weeks not months and we can get greater value out of each individual balloon,” said Google in a recent statement. “Overall this means a 100x reduction in the total number of balloons we’d need, which has huge implications for the costs of operating a Loon-powered network.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHCKL-fCmk8
Early in the testing many had said it would be unlikely that Google could keep its balloons afloat for more than a few days. Now Google says it has successfully kept its balloons afloat for hundreds of days over hundreds of miles.
“It’s still a surprise to many of us that Loon is looking as promising as it is; for years, the team focused their efforts on proving that Loon wouldn’t work,” noted Google’s Astro Teller in a post on Medium. “Even the Project name tells you that our mindset when we got started was more ‘worth a shot’ rather than ‘this could work.’ Yet with each passing year, we keep finding the next steps on the path to making balloon-powered Internet a reality.”
Hopefully Google is successful with this new ISP service. The more competition there is the better it is for cord cutters.
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