Google said in a blog post that the project is in its very early days, explaining that they built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today\u2019s 3G networks or faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf successful, Project Loon could be an affordable, scalable way to help address the digital divide in South Africa, a large country with many towns and communities still isolated from broadband Internet access,” said Luke Mckend, Country Director, Google South Africa.<\/p>\n
“Last year\u2019s Internet Matters study by World Wide Worx showed that the Internet contributes up to 2 percent (or R59-billion) of the country\u2019s GDP. We think that more Internet access can boost economic development and job creation, which is highly pertinent in South Africa\u2019s current climate\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem.<\/p>\n
There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity\u2014jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month\u2019s income.<\/p>\n
Solving these problems isn\u2019t simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we\u2019re unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access.<\/p>\n