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

[Edwin A. Opare]

Joly,

What can we do to help?

Best,

Edwin A. Opare
ISOC Ghana


On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 11:05 PM, Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com> wrote:

>
> (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
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