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If you want to get the next billion connect why balloons? Why not a conventional grid? Why not improve internet service in Mumbai? Is there a more direct way to

If you want to get the next billion connect why balloons? Why not a conventional grid? Why not improve internet service in Mumbai? Is there a more direct way to get the next billion connected? Does Google think there is no competition in these rural areas?

Goopplesoft 12y ago
Because if you get this unconventional method right your barrier to scaling reduces in the long run.
paulrov 12y ago
Because theres nothing glamorous about that.
eru 12y ago
The balloons are one project by one company. Google has more irons in the fire, and there are more companies. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
Maakuth 12y ago
At least balloons are impossible to steal or sabotage, which might be a benefit for areas where no functional state is present (try Somalia). I can also imagine they are very cost efficient and fast to deploy to areas where connectivity is needed or is rapidly lost, say after an earthquake.
- BCM43 12y ago
  Really? I'm curious how hard it would be to shoot one down.
  - qwertyboy 12y ago
    At 60,000 to 90,000 ft.? Yeah, it's gonna be challenging.
  - discardorama 12y ago
    It is hard. Read this story about one similar rogue balloon from a few years back. The RCAF apparently fired over 1000 rounds into the balloon, and it still stayed aloft. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/160598.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/160598.stm
Steko 12y ago
It's hard to take this next 5 billion stuff seriously when there's still no P2P mesh support built into Android.
- contingencies 12y ago
  You absolutely hit the nail on the head with this comment. Furthermore, does every developing country want high bandwidth surveillance by developed countries? Because that's what a digitally unsophisticated populace and a crap-ton of smartphones with social networks, high resolution CCDs and IP telephony with dot gov access holes (eg. Skype) does... Personally I think the China model (limit international bandwidth extensively, block or muck with traffic on larger foreign surveillance systems slash free web based services with invite buttons and 20-second polling apps with GPS requirements) actually has some decent properties in terms of decentralizing global power when viewed in this light: "ZOMG, furry foreign kittens!" They're like, exactly the same in China.
  - frozenport 12y ago
    >>has some decent properties in terms of decentralizing global power With modern transportation and communication infrastructure, I do not see a future for a decentralized government. In this light I strongly prefer America's stewardship compared China. I feel Chinese culture brings up people with integrity problems, the cheating I saw at the university translates directly to products that fall below expectation, and problems with intellectual property that encourage copying rather then innovating. Not to mention human rights and Democracy. We both understand that China's model is motivated by the Chinese government trying to protect itself from the Chinese people.
    - contingencies 12y ago
      Coming from someone who has actually lived in both countries, I find your comments quite uninformed in light of the US's well documented abuse of global human rights, eg. any book by Chomsky, Iraq/Afghan war logs, general foreign policy since forever and slavery before that. We all see that your media/military-industrial/government complex work for corporate masters, and we have watched them smash liberty after liberty with things like 'renditions', torture, exporting of torture equipment, training and military/diplomatic support for brutal dictators, attempts to undermine sovereignty in most of the world, massive white collar crime/fraud, destruction of freedom of the press, huge and growing poverty gap, no education without extreme wealth, lip service to health care... I could go on... In China, people know where they stand, even if that's not a great place to be. Similarly, their standard of living has raised materially across all sectors of the population to degrees historically unprecedented over the last hundred years, which has to be recognized. In the US, where people are dying of obesity and alcoholism and fighting over access to shitty habit-forming stimulants, the following quote by - I believe - one of your founding fathers most certainly applies: There are no people so hopelessly enslaved as those who believe they are free. I'm not condoning China's excesses, which are many and despicable, but for the average individual in much of the country it's arguably a better deal than the US. Both countries are quite similar in my view: converging on a highly dynastically corrupt militarized police state with lip service to democratic principles and human rights.
ihsw 12y ago
Because then you have to tear up the ground and maintain the grid's quality and physical security, this would involve managing relationships with numerous jurisdictions on many levels. Also the bandwidth/latency needs are initially going to be quite a bit lower, which eases capacity planning.

Goopplesoft 12y ago

Because if you get this unconventional method right your barrier to scaling reduces in the long run.

paulrov 12y ago

Because theres nothing glamorous about that.

eru 12y ago

The balloons are one project by one company. Google has more irons in the fire, and there are more companies. Let a thousand flowers bloom.

Maakuth 12y ago

At least balloons are impossible to steal or sabotage, which might be a benefit for areas where no functional state is present (try Somalia). I can also imagine they are very cost efficient and fast to deploy to areas where connectivity is needed or is rapidly lost, say after an earthquake.

BCM43 12y ago
Really? I'm curious how hard it would be to shoot one down.
- qwertyboy 12y ago
  At 60,000 to 90,000 ft.? Yeah, it's gonna be challenging.
- discardorama 12y ago
  It is hard. Read this story about one similar rogue balloon from a few years back. The RCAF apparently fired over 1000 rounds into the balloon, and it still stayed aloft. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/160598.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/160598.stm

Steko 12y ago

It's hard to take this next 5 billion stuff seriously when there's still no P2P mesh support built into Android.

contingencies 12y ago
You absolutely hit the nail on the head with this comment. Furthermore, does every developing country want high bandwidth surveillance by developed countries? Because that's what a digitally unsophisticated populace and a crap-ton of smartphones with social networks, high resolution CCDs and IP telephony with dot gov access holes (eg. Skype) does... Personally I think the China model (limit international bandwidth extensively, block or muck with traffic on larger foreign surveillance systems slash free web based services with invite buttons and 20-second polling apps with GPS requirements) actually has some decent properties in terms of decentralizing global power when viewed in this light: "ZOMG, furry foreign kittens!" They're like, exactly the same in China.
- frozenport 12y ago
  >>has some decent properties in terms of decentralizing global power With modern transportation and communication infrastructure, I do not see a future for a decentralized government. In this light I strongly prefer America's stewardship compared China. I feel Chinese culture brings up people with integrity problems, the cheating I saw at the university translates directly to products that fall below expectation, and problems with intellectual property that encourage copying rather then innovating. Not to mention human rights and Democracy. We both understand that China's model is motivated by the Chinese government trying to protect itself from the Chinese people.
  - contingencies 12y ago
    Coming from someone who has actually lived in both countries, I find your comments quite uninformed in light of the US's well documented abuse of global human rights, eg. any book by Chomsky, Iraq/Afghan war logs, general foreign policy since forever and slavery before that. We all see that your media/military-industrial/government complex work for corporate masters, and we have watched them smash liberty after liberty with things like 'renditions', torture, exporting of torture equipment, training and military/diplomatic support for brutal dictators, attempts to undermine sovereignty in most of the world, massive white collar crime/fraud, destruction of freedom of the press, huge and growing poverty gap, no education without extreme wealth, lip service to health care... I could go on... In China, people know where they stand, even if that's not a great place to be. Similarly, their standard of living has raised materially across all sectors of the population to degrees historically unprecedented over the last hundred years, which has to be recognized. In the US, where people are dying of obesity and alcoholism and fighting over access to shitty habit-forming stimulants, the following quote by - I believe - one of your founding fathers most certainly applies: There are no people so hopelessly enslaved as those who believe they are free. I'm not condoning China's excesses, which are many and despicable, but for the average individual in much of the country it's arguably a better deal than the US. Both countries are quite similar in my view: converging on a highly dynastically corrupt militarized police state with lip service to democratic principles and human rights.

ihsw 12y ago

Because then you have to tear up the ground and maintain the grid's quality and physical security, this would involve managing relationships with numerous jurisdictions on many levels. Also the bandwidth/latency needs are initially going to be quite a bit lower, which eases capacity planning.