Union Government has given in principle approval to work on Loon project of internet search engine giant Google for providing Internet connectivity by using large balloons.
In his first visit to the country, Google’s newly-appointed chief Sundar Pichai managed to secure support for the company’s ambitious Loon project in the government. Union minister for telecom and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government was in principle agreeable to pilots of Google’s Project Loon.
After meeting Pichai in New Delhi, Prasad said he had also proposed a partnership with state run BSNL for Project Loon. Under the project Loon, Google has proposed to provide internet connectivity in hard to access areas of the country from balloons floating at a height of 20 km using LTE or 4G technology. Prasad also said that the telecom ministry would help Google in obtaining clearances from civil aviation and the defence ministries for approvals.
What is Google’s Loon project?
- It is Google’s ambitious research and development project that aims at providing low-cost Internet access to rural and remote areas.
- Under the project, high altitude floating telecom tower balloons are positioned at a height of 20 km, above earth’s surface for transmission of internet services.
- Each balloon can provide full wireless broadband internet coverage up to an area of 40 km. These balloons are mainly powered though solar panels.
- These balloons have transceivers which can connect to cell phone networks in order to fill the gaps in their networks especially in remote areas such as mountains and deserts.
- Google already has successfully tested this technology in New Zealand, California and Brazil.
Apart from Project Loon, Google also has partner with the Common Service Centre (CSC) and Internet Sathi programme (ISP) to expand Internet reach in 3 lakh villages particularly for women training. Google is also focusing on bringing its various products in many more Indian languages.