Cell Towers in the Sky

By Michelle Choi, an insider at Lease Advisors

Google’s “Project Loon” was initially named for an unprecedented and seemingly “crazy” goal of providing balloon-powered Internet access to every person in the world. The project places high-altitude balloons 20 miles into the stratosphere and creates a wireless network of cell towers in the sky. Since unveiling the project in June 2013, Google has come closer to its mission of bridging the gap for the world’s remaining 5 billion residents who are currently without Internet access.

The balloons float twice as high as weather patterns and airplanes, using software algorithms to rise and fall as needed depending on where it needs to go. The infrastructure is able to withstand thin atmosphere, minimal UV radiation protection, and temperature variances between 10 and 60 kilometers above the earth’s surface. Base stations beam Internet to the nearest balloons which communicate with the next nearest balloons, and back down to base stations in villages. A region will need hundreds of balloons in the air to be serviced with reliable Internet access.

Google’s new project may have been seen by some as a threat to the telecom industry, but Google wants to partner, rather than compete, with incumbent carriers by sharing spectrum and lobbying to allocate unused spectrum. LTE will allow Google to interlace its service with existing networks. Existing cell towers and small cells will continue to provide connection to mobile devices in densely populated areas, while Loon balloons work in more remote areas where tower companies and cellular providers have less incentive to erect costly towers to provide services for fewer residents. Some telecom companies have already expressed interest in partnering with Google on this project and have begun testing the service. To date, Google has begun working with Telstra in Australia, Vodafone in New Zealand, and Telefonica in South America.

“The main cost gain comes from the fact that you can cover a much bigger region with existing infrastructure,” said Google. “Telcos take their preexisting infrastructure, point them to the sky, and they get a much broader coverage. For instance if you already have towers to cover a city, you can point part of it to the sky, and you will be able to cover the whole region through the loon balloon network.”

After trials in New Zealand and Brazil, the first country to deploy balloon-based Internet will be Sri Lanka, where 1 in 5 people have Internet access today. In trials, intermittent access was provided before the wind carried the balloons away. But progress is swift. Balloons that previously stayed aloft for just 5 days are now in the sky for 6 months. Where previously, Loon balloons been able to roam 50 miles away from a ground station, suggesting the need for Google and its telecom partners to build hundreds of ground stations, now they may roam up to 500 miles away. Given these rapid advancements and Google’s ability to quickly troubleshoot, Project Loon is becoming more feasible by the day.