[Chapter-delegates] Fwd: Google Testing Blimp Broadband in Africa

[Joly MacFie]

(fwd from ISOC Trustee Dave Farber)


Google Testing Blimp Broadband in Africa
Blimpband: Long Promised, Never Delivered
By Karl Bode
May 28 2013
<
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Google-Testing-Blimp-Broadband-in-Africa-124389
>

For years we've talked about the idea of "stratellites" -- or blimps
proposed for use primarily as communications vessels either in military
conflict, disaster zones, or in rural markets. One of the "leaders" (the
term is used loosely) in the field has been Sanswire Networks, whose
"blimpband" services have made hype-drenched headlines for years yet never
actually materialized. Now Google is breathing new life into the blimpband
market with the news that they're tinkering with blimp-based broadband" for
use in markets like Africa:

Search giant Google is intending to build huge wireless networks across
Africa and Asia, using high-altitude balloons and blimps. The company is
intending to finance, build and help operate networks from sub-Saharan
Africa to Southeast Asia, with the aim of connecting around a billion
people to the web. To help enable the campaign, Google has been putting
together an ecosystem of low-cost smartphones running Android on low-power
microprocessors. Rather than traditional infrastructure, Google's signal
will be carried by high-altitude platforms - balloons and blimps - that can
transmit to areas of hundreds of square kilometres.

Like Microsoft, who also has an interest in Africa as an exploding mobile
market, Google has also been working on using White Space broadbandto
deliver connectivity to Africa.

[snip]

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast
WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com
 http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com
 VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org
--------------------------------------------------------------
-
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://elists.isoc.org/mailman/private/chapter-delegates/attachments/20130528/7423f919/attachment.htm>