Jan.1, 2016 Google launches Project Loon over US?
Multiple articles say Google is planning to test its balloon-based Project Loon over the United States starting January 1, lasting for 24 months. Articles below. FCC application attached. Where are the public hearings? Where is the notice? I've seen information that Google will use 200,000 balloons.
In the FCC doc, there is only reference to interference from their transmitters. Missing is any mention of compliance with FCC guidelines.
This is for Wi-Fi and cellular service everywhere. They call these "cell towers in the sky". I don't understand the significance of the two types of frequencies in the FCC doc-- 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz as well as between 60 MHz and 580 MHz. The GHz frequencies are close to terahertz frequencies that tear apart DNA. TETRA frequencies are 390-400 MHz for the carrier wave (Alasdair Phillips), so the MHz Loon frequencies could include that harmful range. The lower the frequencies, the greater the penetrating power. How are they using these two groups of frequencies? The FCC doc is redacted in part.
I came across this article by Kim Goldberg.http://electroplague.com/2014/05/21/wireless-radiation-turns-our-protons-into-radio-transmitters/MRI machines use “RF fields of 10-400 MHz to excite the protons in the body and cause them to emit radio waves for the acquisition of anatomical images.”
The possibilities for data acquisition on people are astounding. Sounds like a gigantic imaging capability -- a Doppler system. Why else would a project of such scope be so secretively launched without any opportunity for public input or protest?
Kim Goldberg says,
"(For a more detailed description of this phenomenon of proton excitation by radio frequencies, see the British Medical Journal article on Magnetic Resonance Imaging.) ...Yes, it can certainly be medically useful (at times) to have those MRI images. But the relevant take-away here is that our protons are perpetually being turned into RF transmitters by our daily exposure to wireless RF radiation from smart meters, cell phones, wi-fi, and more.
And that particular transformation of our bodies at a sub-atomic level is one that nobody signed on for and most people would reject if they knew it was happening to them.
Article © Kim Goldberg, 2014
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-appears-set-to-test-loon-across-all-50-us-states-2015-11
Google is about to test something secretive across all of the US — and it sounds exactly like its Project Loon balloons Alexei Oreskovic Nov. 25, 2015
Google appears to be planning to test its Project Loon internet balloons across the entire US, according to recent documents filed with the FCC. The company has asked the Federal Communications Commission for a license to test experimental radios that use wireless spectrum in the millimeter bandwidth in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Google said it wants to begin the tests on January 1 for a period of 24 months. The testing could indicate that Google is broadening its ambitions for providing consumers with internet access through the special balloons developed in its secretive X Labs. Project Loon is Google's plan to operate a fleet of solar-powered balloons — flying at an altitude of 60,000 to 90,000 feet — that are capable of beaming internet access down to the earth. Google has described the project as a way to bring internet access to people in developing economies and regions of the world that lack communications infrastructure.
In October, Google announced plans to conduct a countrywide test of Loon in Indonesia next year, in partnership with some of the country's largest telecom companies. Google has previously said that it believes Loon's "floating cell towers in the sky" could one day become a business that generates billions of dollars in revenue. But given the project's focus on serving underdeveloped regions of the world, it's not clear why Google would want to test Loon across all of the US. The testing could simply be a way for Google to perfect the technology before rolling it out to other parts of the world, or it could signal that Google believes the balloons could be useful closer to home.
Google is also developing drones capable of delivering internet access and plans to conduct air-to-ground communications tests at the Spaceport America facility in New Mexico and on a Native American reservation in Oregon. Google rival Facebook is also testing drones and satellites capable of delivering internet access.
All roads lead to Winnemucca
Google's latest FCC filings are heavily redacted and don't mention Loon by name. But they contain a couple of clues that suggest that Google's plan to test the experimental radio transmitters across the US next year involve its Loon balloons.
The name of the applicant on the filing is Astro Teller, Google's so-called Captain of Moonshots, who oversees the Google X Labs that is working on Loon as well as projects such as self-driving cars and drones. More tellingly, the filing notes that Google's latest request for an experimental license is for continued development of previous tests, in which the company also acquired experimental licenses from the FCC. According to the previous filings that Google references, those tests were conducted in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Winnemucca, Nevada
Winnemucca is a remote town of roughly 7,000 in Nevada, and its attractions include a small brothel district known as "The Line" and an annual Basque festival, according to Wikipedia. But in August 2014, one month before Google's first FCC request for a license to test in Winnemucca, the published minutes of the Winnemucca City Council contain a proposal to let Google use its airport industrial park as a "temporary balloon launching facility."
The most recent Google FCC filings indicated that Google wants to use frequencies in the 71 GHz to 76 GHz range and in the 81 GHz to 86 GHz range. These so-called millimeter wave frequencies are ideal for transmitting large amounts of data, although they work best over short distances. That suggests that Google may be using the millimeter wave radios for balloon-to-balloon communications while using LTE technology to beam the actual internet service back down to Earth.
We've reached out to Google and will update the story if we hear back.
Here's a video of Project Loon balloons in action:
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/110881/20151126/google-to-test-project-loon-balloons-in-the-us-next-year-fcc-documents-show.htm
Besides looking out for fireworks in the skies on the first of January in 2016, watch out for Google's Internet balloons, too.
Google's Project Loon is the Mountain View company's initiative to make the Internet available to everyone on the planet using balloons. It may sound a bit looney but Google's Project Loon makes just as much sense as Facebook's plans of using huge, solar powered drones.
Using high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere 11 miles high up in the sky, Google hopes to be able to create a multi-balloon, aerial wireless network with up to 4G LTE speeds. Intended to provide Internet access to the remaining five billion people on the planet, Project Loon has already taken test flights in New Zealand and Brazil. Now, the balloons are coming back home.
Documents from the Federal Communcaitions Commission reveal that Google is planning to do large scale tests of its Internet balloons across the country. In its request to the FCC, the company is seeking a license to test experimental radios that make use of the wireless spectrum in the millimeter bandwidth.
Much of information in the public document released by the FCC has been redacted to keep Google's commercial interests confidential. What we do know, however, is that Google wants to test its balloons over American skies for two years beginning on Jan. 1, 2016. In addition, "during the course of testing, Google plans to operate transmitters with a range of bandwidths between 60 and 580 MHz. In no case will the bandwidth be smaller than 60 MHz or exceed 580 MHz," Google notes in its request.
Besides the United States, Google has already sealed an agreement with Indonesia's largest telecom companies to roll out tests in the island nation. That being said, and given that Project Loon's original goal was to serve underdeveloped regions of the world, it's a curiosity as to why Google would want to test Loon in the United States. It could be that testing at home makes perfecting the Loon technology easier, or the company also sees potential commercial value in using Loon balloons for Americans. We'll have to keep our eyes up at the sky to find out.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/story/google-could-be-preparing-expand-project-loon-tests-across-us-report/2015-11-29
Google could be preparing to expand Project Loon tests across U.S.: report November 29, 2015 | By Monica Alleven
Based on filings with the FCC, it looks as if Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) may be angling to test its Project Loon balloons across the United States using millimeter wave spectrum.
In a heavily redacted public version of the Nov. 24 filing with the FCC, Google asks for an experimental license to be granted for 24 months beginning Jan. 1, 2016. Granting the license will not adversely impact any authorized user of RF spectrum, the filing states.
The filing doesn't mention Loon by name, but various publications are connecting it to Loon because the name listed on the application is Astro Teller, whose title is Captain of Moonshots. He has overseen the Google X labs where Loon is being worked on, along with other "moonshot" things like autonomous cars and drones that are now part of Google parent company Alphabet.
Business Insider also pointed out that the most recent filing builds on testing the company previously did in Winnemucca, Nev. In August 2014, one month before Google's first FCC request for a license to test in Winnemucca, published minutes of the Winnemucca City Council revealed a proposal to let Google use its airport industrial park as a "temporary balloon launching facility."
A Google spokesperson did not respond to FierceWirelessTech's request for comment.
The most recent FCC filings show Google wants to use 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz spectrum, which work best over short distances, suggesting Google may want to use the millimeter wave radios for balloon-to-balloon communications and LTE to beam the Internet service back down to Earth, Business Insider reports.
At Google's I/O conference last spring, engineers on a panel about engineering for the stratosphere talked about how in the early days, balloon prototypes usually wouldn't make it too far from California, but they tracked one over Kentucky, where YouTube alerts about UFO sightings started popping up around the same time. The local news showed an image of one of the balloons as part of the "UFO" coverage.
A year ago, Project Loon Director Mike Cassidy told Slate that he anticipated the first customers in rural South America, southern Africa or Oceania would be able to sign up for cellular LTE service provided by Google balloons by 2016.
While Google is still trying to keep most of its Loon plans secret, it will occasionally share details about what engineers are learning. In a video posted last week, manufacturing lead Mahesh Krishnaswamy talks about how the team has been able to accelerate improvements in balloon lifetime, design and manufacturing by using the McKinley Climatic Lab to test whole balloons at -40 to -60 degrees centigrade (-40F to -76F).
Teller discussed Loon during I/O as well and said the right way to build solutions isn't always immediately clear, so a lot of trial and error occurs. "Sometimes this turns out to be us dragging our balloons up to South Dakota to expose the balloons to arctic winds," he said.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/2/8129543/google-x-internet-balloon-project-loon-interview
Inside Project Loon: Google's internet in the sky is almost open for business By Ben Popper on March 2, 2015 11:34 am (Watch on YouTube)
“Good news,” says Katelin Jabbari, Google X’s communications chief. “It’s about to explode.”
We’re several hundred feet in the air, inching our way along a wooden walkway tucked high into the rafters of the massive hangar at Moffett Federal Airfield, where Google’s most outlandish and secretive division has been testing new prototypes for Project Loon. Below us, a pair of huge balloons sway gently on their tethers. Engineers are racing around them like ants.
Loon is being built with the audacious goal of beaming internet access down to the most remote parts of the planet, using specially equipped balloons that kiss the upper edges of Earth’s atmosphere. Today, the team is running an inflation test that will measure the pressure that the giant white spheres can handle before popping. The pressure hits 1000 pascal. “It usually doesn’t last much longer,” says Jabbari.
The ground crew radios up another report. "We’re at 1,100 now," she continues. "I don’t think it’s ever been this high without ripping before." A bulge emerges on the far side of the balloon, and several engineers scurry over with a mass spectrometer, searching for tiny ruptures in the fabric, invisible to the naked eye, that might be leaking. "Okay, we’re at 1,200; that is a new record," she says a few minutes later. "I don’t really know what’s going to happen now."
That's a good metaphor for Project Loon as a whole. As it moves past the technical hurdles of floating the internet miles above the planet, Loon is poised to enter uncharted territory: building an actual business.
Balloons are now staying aloft for six months This morning, in front of top mobile executives from around the world, Google’s Sundar Pichai laid out a renewed pitch for Project Loon. "[It] started about four years ago as an experimental idea. When you think about it, it sounds a bit crazy," Pichai admitted. But they've made "huge progress," he says, dramatically increasing their data speeds and coverage area. The early models last only a few days; the goal for commercial viability was to have them floating for three months. "Today we are excited to announce most of our balloons stay up for as long as six months," says Pichai.
The newest record was a ballon that lasted 187 days in the air, circumnavigating the globe nine times, passing over more than a dozen countries on four continents along the way. As Google Glass undergoes a reset, and driverless cars remain years away from commercial viability, Loon looks increasingly like the poster child for bringing a disruptive new technology out of Google’s labs and into the real world. After successful tests with several telcos, Loon is now in the process of working toward commercial deals with several network operators around the globe. "We think the model is really beginning to work, and we have started large-scale testing," said Pichai. "We’ll be working with carrier partners around the world so they can build their services on top of our backbone."
Loon project leader Mike Cassidy poses with the earliest payload prototype.
Loon was born out of a long-standing fascination that Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had with high-altitude balloons. "Either we could take something they hadn’t thought about, present it to them, and get them excited," explains Google X chief Astro Teller, "or we could take something they were already excited about, but no one really knew how to do and make it work."
The man tasked with "making it work" is Mike Cassidy, a serial entrepreneur with a nose for the next big thing. I met up with him in a crowded lab on Google’s main campus, a 15-minute drive from the towering Moffett hangar where engineers were stressing Loon’s translucent shells to their limits.
A very particular set of skills
On his way to Google, Cassidy founded and sold four startups, including the search engine DirectHit, which AskJeeves bought for $532 million just 500 days after he launched it. Cassidy ended up at Google after it acquired his travel search startup, Ruba, in 2010. He spent some time working on Google’s core search product, but in 2012, Teller came calling. He needed someone with entrepreneurial experience — but Cassidy also possessed a unique set of skills which had been dormant for a while.
"I actually got my bachelor's and master's from MIT in aerospace engineering," Cassidy explains. Before jumping into the software startup game, he "designed communication satellites for a while," where he saw firsthand how painstakingly slow the development process could be. "It would take three to four years to build a satellite and a year waiting for it to launch. If it was on station for 10 to 12 years, at some point, you’re using technology that is five, seven, even 10 years old."
At Teller’s Google X, things move a little faster. The initial step in any of the team’s projects is simple, Cassidy explains: "We try to prove that it can’t work. So the first thing we did was take a router and flew it on a weather balloon up to 10 kilometers to see if we could still get a signal. That part worked."
Between March 2014 and January of this year, Loons set a series of duration records, topping out above 180 days.
When you imagine a sensitive computer system that will be subjected to the harsh conditions of the stratosphere, you probably don’t picture it inside a $2 box meant for a picnic. But in the fast and dirty ethos of X Labs, the simplest solution is often the best one — and so it was that the flight controller on early balloons was jammed into a styrofoam beer cooler and set to the edge of outer space. The team keeps that original unit around as a memento.
Since then, the payload has evolved into a modular aluminum rig wrapped in a metal-mylar blanket that insulates it from temperature changes and high-intensity ultraviolet rays. It’s suspended below two solar panels that collect all the energy used to power its onboard systems. The entire payload below the balloon looks very much like a miniature satellite, but takes a fraction of the time and money to produce. Google won’t divulge the exact cost, except to say each balloon costs "tens of thousands of dollars."
"Communication satellites are typically pretty expensive, hundreds of millions to build and a hundred million plus to launch," says Cassidy. "Whereas the balloons are an order of magnitude or two cheaper to operate on a daily basis, even for a global network."
Loon is always aiming to extend the lifespan of its flights, but in some ways, a short ride can be an advantage. "With balloons you’re only four to five months away from having a fresh balloon," Cassidy explains. "New technologies come, new compression algorithms, the electronics can be updated, so you have a pretty fresh fleet in the air at any time."
From right to left, the evolution of Loon's high-tech payload, starting with a styrofoam picnic cooler.
Google isn’t the only company born on the internet trying to make the transition to internet access provider: Facebook is charting a similar course, launching a number of initiatives (including drones) with the goal of flooding the world with internet service. That raises a troubling question: as the world's internet superpowers use their dominant positions to extend access to the developing world, will they be ensuring that people can reach the web, or just a white-listed portion of it? In India, Facebook's Internet.org partnership — which is often styled as an altruistic endeavor — doesn’t include free access to Twitter, Google, or any other big name company that Facebook might view as a competitor. It’s essentially the antithesis of net neutrality.
Can the world's giant internet services be trusted to provide unfettered internet access?
When I asked Cassidy if the internet enabled by Loon would be restricted in any way, or if Google would favor its own services, he seemed surprised by the question. "I honestly don’t know. No, it’s the internet, whatever you get on the internet. It opens a Chrome browser and whatever you’ve set as your homepage."
Teller confirmed Loon’s internet would be agnostic — you don't even have to use Chrome — and that it could still benefit Google in the process. "We believe that there is plenty of goodness and plenty of financial benefit in the long run for Google," he told me. "We don’t need there to be some other goal."
The balloons ride global wind currents like rivers, climbing and sinking to find the right flow. (EarthWindMap) You can’t just launch a bunch of balloons and connect the world, though: right now, Project Loon flies primarily over the southern hemisphere. That’s partially a question of where its services are most needed. Compared to the northern hemisphere, the southern half of the planet is far less densely populated, full of remote areas where broadband internet is less likely to reach. These countries also provide a more welcoming regulatory atmosphere. "The southern hemisphere is pretty easy to overfly in terms of air traffic control," says Johan Mathe, a Frenchman in charge of designing Loon’s navigation. "That’s one of the places where there is the least hand off to do."
Each loon is really two balloons in one
Mathe strolls up to a whiteboard inside of one of the innumerable windowless conference room that dot the Googleplex. To navigate, he explains, the Loons only move up and down, surfing through different altitudes to find wind currents that will carry them where they want to go. Each Loon is actually two balloons, one inside the other. The outer balloon is filled with helium that lifts it to its float altitude, while the inner balloon takes on air to descend or vents it to rise, like a boat using water as ballast.
Using massive data sets from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Google’s algorithms try to decide which currents they should ride to pass over coverage areas. It’s a big data exercise that perfectly fits the company’s core capabilities. Mathe draws a rainbow on the board, a vast array of possible trajectories that each balloon will take based on the wind.
"We only get 15 days of weather data, and after five or six days, the quality degrades. We cannot foresee the future very precisely," explains Mathe. The algorithms he crafts try to begin by hitting a broad target. "As we get closer, we kick in more frequent altitude changes." He shows a recent flight that launched from New Zealand, aiming to overfly a small town in Chile. It travels smoothly for a while, then begins to zigzag its way closer to the destination. "We can observe this kind of tacking pattern, as sailors would do." The balloon passed within 500 meters (about 1,640 feet) of the village and successfully connected to a device on the ground.
The winds can be unpredictable
The flows aren’t always that predictable. During a live demo in front of Brazil’s minister of communications, a balloon drifted directly away from the village it was supposed to connect. Another one took out electricity to homes in a Washington town when it missed its landing site and came to rest on a power line. "Usually when you fly in the southern hemisphere, you stay there. At least that’s what we thought until we had a flight change hemispheres," says Mathe with a chuckle. "We were like, ‘What!’ We thought that wasn’t possible. So that was pretty fun."
As the balloons crisscross the globe, educating governments about what Loon is and how it works will be critical to the project’s success. Countries like China, already outright hostile to Google’s web services, may have little interest in allowing the search giant to beam internet access to its citizens, something that would make it difficult to reach a neighbor like India as well. That could put a huge swathe of the world's unconnected consumers out of Loon's reach. The company declined to comment on when and how it might start flying regularly over that part of the globe.
But even in developed nations with widespread internet access, there has been interest in what Loon’s unique approach could provide. Cassidy recently traveled to a meeting with Japanese officials in Tokyo. "One of the great benefits of being in the stratosphere is that it’s above the weather," says Cassidy, when I ask him about the potential for flights over more of the developed world. "If there is a hurricane or a typhoon that knocks out power or internet connectivity to people on the ground, the balloons provide very exciting ways to allow people to have immediate connectivity. As long as they have a battery powered phone in their pocket, people will be able to instantly get access to the balloon network."
"Floating cell towers in the sky."
Last year, Project Loon switched its payloads from Wi-Fi to LTE — "floating cell towers in the sky," Cassidy calls them — which led to big improvements in speed and reliability. For connectivity the balloons link up with base stations and pass signal between themselves like relay runners exchanging a baton. The move to LTE has also given a big boost to the business model, because it’s now a turnkey solution for wireless network operators. "The main reason the telcos are so excited about partnering with us is that they want to reach all the people in their country," says Cassidy. In fact, in many cases there is a government mandate for universal access — but building out wireline networks, cell towers, and fiber optics to remote rural regions isn’t cost effective. "Flying a balloon overhead, on the other hand, can be done very cheaply."
The team recently crossed another milestone with its first successful connection test across multiple continents. Balloons launched in New Zealand flew over 9,000 kilometers (about 5,600 miles) to Latin America and delivered an internet connection, then flew back around the globe for another successful connection test in Australia, navigating the balloons within 500 meters of their target locations at opposite ends of the world.
Google wants to work with, not against, the incumbent telcos Loon has now conducted tests with Vodafone in New Zealand, Telstra in Australia, and Telefonica in Latin America, and it says it’s working on commercial deals with several new network operators around the globe. These companies already own the spectrum and have the infrastructure in place to market, sell, and bill customers for service. Google gets permission to use the spectrum and provides the cell towers in the sky, sharing the revenue for each new customer with the telco.
"Sometimes people think of Google X as a research lab. But it’s not just that," says Cassidy. "Very early on in the project analysis it has to have a viable business model, and they are tough on the business model."
As Cassidy speaks, his voice rises with excitement, and you can recognize the former startup savant coming to the fore. "Think about it — with 4.5 billion people without internet access, take 5 percent; you’re talking 250 million people," he says. If those people pay just a small portion of their monthly income, say $5 a piece, "you’re going to be in a billion dollars a month in revenue, tens of billions a year in revenue. So it’s good business, too."
Loon's Pamela Desrochers inspects the inside of a popped balloon for damage.
Back at Moffett, the sun is setting, casting long shadows through the enormous bay doors. High up in the rafters, I’ve got my camera trained on the Loons below, hoping to catch the moment they explode. But I miss: with a silent slump, the balloon below me rents open and starts to crumple on itself. A small cheer goes up from the engineering team, who clamber inside through the tears to access the damage and see what they can improve for next time.
It's something that's never been asked of balloons before Pamela Desrochers, a former fashion designer turned Loon program manager, is inside the carcass. She has obsessed over every detail of how to make the Loons last longer, from the materials to the special socks manufacturing workers now have to wear when walking on them. In this hangar, Loon staff are hyper-focused on finding better construction techniques, but it's clear that Loon is just a piece of a much grander puzzle — a puzzle that now involves balloons, satellites, fiber, and terrestrial wireless. Google, like Facebook, is looking to provide internet access so that its services can reach every corner of the globe, no matter how remote.
Desrochers emerges from the tattered side of the slowly deflating balloon. She’s been studying the way the fabric twists and folds to try and prevent the next pop. "This is something that has never been asked of balloons before, to be reliable, to do what we ask them to do," she remarks. "Before it was just a vehicle to gain knowledge. Now we’re trying to make a business."
http://9to5google.com/2015/11/25/project-loon-united-states-tests/
Google’s latest FCC filing hints at more extensive Project Loon testing in the U.S.
November 25, 2015
Chance Miller
According to a recent filing with the FCC, Google is looking to test something with experimental radios that use a wireless spectrum in all 50 states and in Puerto Rico. The details on these tests are incredibly sparse at this point, but Google wants to start the process on January 1st and test for 24 months (via BI).
Much of the actual FCC filing itself has been redacted in the version released to the public, but there are two possibilities as to what Google could be referring to in its requests. The most likely of the two, however, appears to be its Project Loon Internet balloons.
Project Loon, of course, is Google X’s project that it hopes will allow it to provide Internet to rural and less-developed areas with solar-powered balloons that fly between 60,000 and 90,000 feet. Google recently announced that it would begin testing Loon in Indonesia next year in partnership with the major wireless carriers in the country.
There are several pieces of evidence in the FCC filing that hint at it being related to Project Loon. The first is the name on the filing: Astro Teller, who is essentially the “head” of Google X’s Moonshots. The filing also mentions how these tests are a continuation of tests it previously conducted in the United States. In the past, Google has conducted tests with Loon in a small town in Nevada.
It remains to be seen as to why Google wants to test Loon extensively in the United States when it has said previously that under-developed countries are its primary target with the project. One idea Google could have, however, is that should an area in the United States suffer from some sort of natural disaster, Loon could theoretically be used to help provide a communications platform for citizens and officials.
There’s also a small possibility that Google could potentially be looking to test its Project Fi service more extensively with this FCC request. This, however, seems unlikely as Fi is already readily available to customers and is not a Google X project.
You can read the full redacted FCC doc from Google here.
https://apps.fcc.gov/els/GetAtt.html?id=169705&x=