Google had earlier unveiled the Project Loon, which is aimed to bring the Internet to areas that have little or no Internet connection at all.
ComputerWorld reported that Google had expanded its Project Loon tests to the Nevada desert and, for the first time, into a licensed radio spectrum. Google has declined the testing under this project. However, local officials confirmed that the work is related to the Project Loon.
Project Loon, aimed to bring the Internet to areas that have little or no coverage, is being experimented with balloons that fly around 65,000 feet above the earth’s surface. Each balloon will use radio links of 2.4 GHz.
ComputerWorld further stated, ‘Google's application didn't say exactly which wireless technology it planned to use, but it did disclose the broad type of signal: a class that includes LTE, WiMax and other point-to-point microwave data transmission systems. That clue, coupled with the use of a paired spectrum, points to the likelihood of LTE.’
‘The area covers a vast part of northern Nevada, and the license came with two conditions for Google: that it get consent from local wireless broadband operators, and that it ensure its tests didn't take place within 25 miles of an LTE base station in Elko, Nevada, that's operated by AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile,’ it added.
In its application to the FCC, Google asked that details of the proposed tests be kept secret for competitive reasons. "The technology is under development and highly sensitive and confidential in nature," Google wrote to the FCC. "The release of such information would provide valuable insight into Google's technology innovations and potential business plans and strategies." Disclosing the tests, it added, would "jeopardize the value of the technology" and enable others to "utilize Google's information to develop similar products in a similar timeframe."
What is Project Loon: Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters.
The Technology: Project Loon balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather. In the stratosphere, there are many layers of wind, and each layer of wind varies in direction and speed. Loon balloons go where they’re needed by rising or descending into a layer of wind blowing in the desired direction of travel. People can connect to the balloon network using a special Internet antenna attached to their building. The signal bounces from this antenna up to the balloon network, and then down to the global Internet on Earth.
Project Loon began in June 2013 with an experimental pilot in New Zealand, where a small group of Project Loon pioneers tested Loon's technology. The results of the pilot test have been used to improve the technology, and continued refinements are now being tested in an ongoing series of research flights in California’s Central Valley.
