After first piloting its balloon-based internet idea in New Zealand last year, Google is now bringing the concept to Australia.
The effort, dubbed Project Loon, aims to provide Internet access to underserved areas via high-flying balloons. Google is gearing up to unleash 20 connected balloons in western Queensland in December, The Guardian reported. The large helium balloons are equipped with antennas that offer 4G-like signals to homes and phones some 12 miles down below.
For the latest trial, Google is teaming up with Australia's largest mobile phone carrier, Telstra, which will supply base stations to communicate with the balloons. Besides the trial in Australia, Google is doing tests with Vodafone in New Zealand and Telefonica in Chile, a Google spokesperson confirmed.
"One of the reasons we said we were going public with this project last year was so we could start talking to potential partners such as telcos and getting feedback," the spokesperson said.
The Web giant first got started with the project back in June 2013 with a pilot in the Canterbury area of New Zealand that included 30 balloons in the air and 50 testers on the ground. The purpose is to establish Internet access in areas that are very difficult to wire up due to their location, like jungles, archipelagos, and mountains.
With balloons flying high overhead, people can conceivably connect to the Web without having to build a complex physical infrastructure on the ground. Google has also said the balloons could also help with communications in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
The company is ultimately aiming to have a ring of balloons all around the Earth.
Balloons aren't the only way Google is looking to increase Web access around the globe. In April, it purchased drone maker Titan Aerospace. Over the summer, it also bought Skybox Imaging for $500 million in order to populate its Maps service with up-to-date imagery and, over time, help improve Internet access and disaster relief.
Rivals Facebook has similar ambitions, and is also looking at looking at drones, satellites, and lasers to assist in providing Internet access worldwide.