Project Loon Brief: "Up Parody"

Video created by: Hunter Clark, Chris Guballa, Derek Holing, Bjorn Thorpe, & Torrey Yost

Project Loon: A Briefing

"The power of the Internet is probably one of the most transformative technologies of our time." - Mike Cassidy, Project Leader of Project Loon (Mendoza & Perry 2013)

The balloons resemble giant pumpkins when
 fully pressurized at high altitudes. 
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Project Loon is one of Google's recent undertakings which aims to provide reliable internet access to the nearly four billion people who currently are with out coverage. If successful, these Loon Balloons and their more widespread internet access should have large transformative socioeconomic and technological impact especially on the least developed countries and areas too rugged or sparsely populated to have traditional coverage. The internet itself would rapidly expand, and barriers pertaining to language, work opportunities, and education could be broken down.

Technology

The balloon’s payload: ballast pump, 
solar panels, emergency parachute, 
3 radios, and more. Credits.

Google’s Project Loon is an attempt at delivering internet access to billions of people living in rural areas worldwide. By sending super-pressurized helium balloons 20 kilometers up into the stratosphere, telecommunication companies can beam 4G LTE signals to the balloons, which then transmit high-speed cellular internet to smartphones and other devices within each balloon’s ground coverage of approximately 50 square miles (Google, 2016). These balloons are 15 meters in diameter, made of polyethylene plastic, and inflated with helium, making them resemble very large and transparent pumpkins built to withstand temperatures of -117°F (Davidson, 2015). Today, balloons have been engineered to stay afloat for over 100 days in the stratosphere before needing any maintenance.

The balloons will be controlled by being
lowered or risen into the wind currents flowing
 in the desired direction. Credits: The Verge.

So how, you might ask, can we control where on earth these balloons fly? Ground engineers have figured out a way to use the varying, but predictable wind patterns of the stratosphere’s different layers to steer the balloons north, south, east, and west. To lower the balloon into the desired wind stream, an onboard pump draws in cold air which is much denser than Helium. To raise it, the air is simply released back into the stratosphere. Attached to each balloon is a payload consisting of solar-powered electronics. On board this payload, you will find three radio transceivers which send and receive data, a flight computer and GPS location tracker, an altitude control system, and the solar panels which supply sustainable power to all the electronics (Google, 2016).

Impact

Project Loon is designed to provide internet to those living in remote areas. Here Charles Nimmo, one of Project Loon’s first test pilot in New Zealand
herds his sheep. Credit: Google Project Loon

While Bill Gates is correct that internet access cannot treat malaria or give relief for those suffering from diarrhea, (Dredge, 2013) 4G networks could be key team players in bringing economic and social improvement to developing countries. Research has shown tremendous gains from the advent of mobile phones in very poor countries. (Ewing 2007) Project Loon has the potential not just for complete cell coverage in underdeveloped or rugged areas but of bumping access up to 4G internet connectivity thus exponentially enabling communication, information gathering and dissemination, e-banking and commerce, education, and medical.

Living in an area too remote and rugged for normal internet connection, farmer, and rancher, Charles Nimmo sometimes pays in excess of $1,000 for access to the satellite (Mendoza & Perry, 2013). He and his family were first users during Project Loon testing in New Zealand which for a fraction of the cost connected them to the web, specifically to much needed weather information.

“It was just for some minutes, but it was wonderful,” said school principal Silvana Pereira in reference to pupils in geography class accessing Wikipedia and online maps. A Loon balloon, drifting high overhead, gave them this rare experience, rare despite the school being less than 70 miles from a metro area of more than one million people. It’s not feasible for Brazil’s wireless carriers to put in the needed infrastructure because the area is too poor and sparsely populated (Simonite, 2015). Project Loon hopes to change this.   

It’s not just remote farmers or poor school kids who are excited about internet access; many governments, such as in Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are thrilled for Project Loon bringing their people internet.

Project Loon has contracted with Indonesia to launch complete country coverage in 2016. 
Their many islands, rough terrain, and spares areas of the population have made i
t unfeasible for standard cable and towers to provide service the entire nation.
Credits: The Guardian.

Telecommunication companies are also happy as Loon balloons allow them to achieve complete coverage and improved quality for their countries thus bolstering free trade and business (Barr, 2014). Google, who has spent an undisclosed but massive amount on this project, also should profit from both advertising revenue from new users brought online and from balloon usage fees paid by the service providers. Additionally, the implications of the project on businesses are huge as internet service seeps into previously inaccessible lands and markets.

Trends

It is indisputable that Project Loon will be an innovative and disruptive achievement for the global community. As the project makes progress, there are several trends that should be monitored: the first of which is the impact that the project will have on the financial barriers to accessing the internet and the implications that accompany the cheaper resource. Secondly, as the world becomes increasingly globalized and projects such as Project Loon begin to become more ubiquitous, the content of the internet will most likely see a much-needed expansion. Lastly, one should be cognizant of trends regarding competition.

As of November 2015, only 46.4% of the world’s 7.25 billion inhabitants had access to the internet.(Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2015) For the most part, the 54.6% of the world that does not have ready access to the internet is located in the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). However, several studies have indicated that the internet brings several positive socioeconomic impacts to the underprivileged groups. For example, a few surveys of women in LDCs conducted by Stanford noted that 50% of the women used the internet as a platform for a job search. Further, 30% of the women used the resource as a means to make additional income (Chang, 2015). For developing countries, Project Loon could be a pioneer in supporting local entrepreneurship, empowering economic freedom and nourishing innovation. Project Loon could cultivate positive economic trends in developing countries.

As the internet brings more information and resources to the developing world, trends in higher education will be worthy of observation. The online publication Digital Trends noted that only 5% of the 7,100 languages that are spoken in the world are represented in online content. That means that approximately 90-95% (assuming some people speak a language that is represented) of the world is unable to use the internet. That statistic reveals a huge barrier in the developing world obtaining a higher education. As Project Loon promotes the expansion of the linguistic capacities of the internet, will the world see an upward trend in education? Further, could competition in the “internet for the people” industry streamline the expansion of the educated world?

Cellphones can improve
living standards Credits:
 Welcome Library London

An untapped market that is open to explorations a wonderful opportunity to observe trends in competition. One of the objectives of Facebook’s Internet.org strives to bring the internet to the developing world using high altitude, long endurance drones. While Google and Facebook are the two biggest names who are navigating this landscape, others are bound to poke around the incredible market opportunity. As the competition unfolds, it will be necessary to follow which companies are the rising stars. Further, how can the competition for this landscape cultivate efficiencies in the way the internet changes the world?

While the technology of giant balloons is nothing to write home about, Project Loon presents an opportunity to cultivate an international community by bringing the internet and all its glory to the most destitute and poorly developed regions of the world. Bill Gates may have a valid point in that the internet will not cure any physical ailments. However, the technology will do wonders in providing previously inaccessible information and resources to the underprivileged world. So, maybe Project Loon really isn’t all that loony.

Discussion questions

1. How is Project Loon a sustainable way of delivering the internet to rural areas of the world?
2. What are some potential problems that Project loon might face?
3. What are the benefits of providing the internet to the 60% of the world’s population who currently don’t have access?
4. How will providing internet access to the rest of the world contribute to the problem of e-waste?
5. What improvements could be made to increase the duration of each balloon’s flight time?
6. What are some other possible functions that the balloons could be used for?
7. How could individual privacy be affected by Project Loon?
8. How would providing internet access to rural areas affect population growth?
9. How will Project Loon affect current telecommunication companies and their profits?
10. How will Project Loon impact communities during natural disasters or times of civil unrest?

References

Barr, Alistair. "Google’s Project Loon Woos Telecom Giants." 17 Nov. 2014. Web. 11 Mar.

2016.

Chang, Lulu. "On the Web Right Now? You’re in the Minority — Most People Still Don’t 
Have Internet." Digital Trends. 24 Sept. 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.

Davidson, Nick. "How It Works: Project Loon's Global Internet." Popular Science. 14 Apr. 
          2015. Web. 11 Mar. 2016. 

Dredge, Stuart. "Bill Gates Criticises Google's Project Loon Initiative." The Guardian. 
Guardian News and Media, 09 Aug. 2013. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.

Ewing, J. “Upwardly Mobile in Africa,” BusinessWeek, September 24, 2007, 64–71.

Mendoza, Martha, and Nick Perry. "Google Launches Internet Beaming Balloons." The Big 
Story. A P, 15 June 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.

Miniwatts Marketing Group. "World Internet Users Statistics and 2015 World Population 
Stats." World Internet Users Statistics and 2015 World Population Stats. 2015. Web. 
01 Mar. 2016.
"Project Loon." Frequently Asked Questions – – Google. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
"Project Loon." How Loon Works – – Google. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.

Simonite, Tom. "Project Loon." MIT Technology Review. MIT, 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2016.