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February 20, 2008

Google May Buy Balloon Company

Duncan Riley

57 comments »


Google is considering working with, or buying Space Data Corp, a company that provides wireless services via Balloon, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Space Data Corp targets areas without existing internet access, such as rural areas and highways, providing wireless and internet services to truckers and rural folk. The company currently launches 20 balloons a day, and a single balloon can service an area equivalent to 40 cell phone towers.

The balloons cost $50, however the transceivers attached to them cost $1500, but parachute back to the earth once the balloon is no longer in service.

(via Gigaom)

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. BigPru

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    In related news…

    Microsoft buys Daisy BB gun

  2. jamboree

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    What I don’t get is why don’t they tether those things?

  3. Grant

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    Any word yet on who won/is winning the spectrum auction?

  4. Faramarz

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

    That’s is quite fascinating to say the least. nice find!

  5. Brady

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    @jamboree: I’m guessing that tethering would cause some major air safety problems.

  6. M.asim

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    I am also working on similar project..I wonder if i get some coworker from this forum.I am alone and cant complete becasue of studies burden.
    asim569@gmail.com

  7. Brady

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    I was wondering what happens when the “rural folk” are out hunting and have an errant shot that hits a balloon, but it turns out they float at about 60,000 - 100,000 feet, so I think they are ok.

  8. NobuNobu

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:28 pm

    Wow! Great idea !

    What about airlines traffic (hydrogene can explode)?

    What about small radio-controled gliders instead (probably more costly)?

  9. Rob Abbott

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

    This is like an article out of PopSci magazine, great way to support those in rural areas.

  10. John C. McClore

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:31 pm

    Pew

  11. Rob Abbott

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    I am not an engineer, but they mentioned battery life? What about using Solar Power?

  12. Jeff the Great

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:46 pm

    who cares about rural areas and truckers. This could be huge for special events (think super bowl, state fair, etc). Why not military or even private deployment (1 ballon over Googleplex?????)

  13. Jenkins

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    it would be great if they could get back to beating their quarterly revenue numbers and quit screwing around.

  14. Steel

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    @Jenkins

    The Mighty Goog is EVERYTHING in life, or so they think. Their stock will tank soon.

  15. NotABug

    February 20th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

    It’d be awesome they’d tie up 100 of those all over New York city, it’s not that easy getting wifi access anywhere. There’s a starbucks on every corner, but those bastards want to you sign up to a monthly service, I rather pay for it and work from home.

    And on the subject of starbucks, I hate all those places offering free internet, but not offering convenient electricity plugs.

    Only on one terminal of JFK I saw a bunch of electricity stations sponsored by Samsung, sometimes having plain electricity is far more important than an internet connection.

  16. etavitom

    February 20th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    that’s pretty awesome! thanks for the cool info.

  17. Hendra

    February 20th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

    Looks like I’ve just found a new hobby with my telescope: balloon spotting

  18. Webside Ventures

    February 20th, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    Wow, this is really interesting. How are they controlling where the balloons float off to?

  19. ex-Googler

    February 20th, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    @Steel

    You have no idea what you are talking about.

  20. Zach Weisman

    February 20th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    HAHAHA! They are using H2 because its cheaper while disregarding the fact that it is highly flammable.

    Would google use a more expensive yet safer gas OR would they wait for a catastrophe!?!?!

  21. Faisal

    February 20th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    Very interesting idea.

    I wonder if this could be used for GSM efficiently , as it will save a lot of cost and make deployment much easier.

  22. Tony

    February 20th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

    @ Zach
    A balloon that size full of hydrogen is not going to create the explosion you think it would. The hydogen requires oxygen to burn, so if one does get set alight it will be a relativly slow burning event as the oxygen in the air will need to pentrate the pocket of hydrogen as it burns.

    It’ll be a big fire for a short time, there’s no doubt about that. But not something which is likly to cause a ‘catastrophe’

  23. Mike

    February 20th, 2008 at 6:18 pm

    Sure hydrogen is more flammable, but who cares if a balloon up in the stratosphere explodes, it’s not like there’s passengers like on the Hindenburg…

    Also, these balloon fly at much higher altitudes than most planes, and are launched in coordination with the proper authorities.

  24. Liz

    February 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

    It be nice if a balloon floated my way, my internet lately hasn’t been working all that great.

  25. ken

    February 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

    I visited Space Data in late November for an industrial application. In fact, I guessed that Google could use them as the platform for a 700 Mhz play - with the billions it costs building towers that the big 3 cell carriers won’t share it only made sense. Space Data have a command center that monitors the balloons as they float across the country at approx. 20 miles per hour at 60-70k feet in a constellation, the lead ones dropping off as new ones are launched. They pass through the air traffic lanes quickly - in a matter of minutes and in fact there has never been an accident with a weather balloon. Apparently the 12 foot diameter balloons are deflected by the leading shock wave. Space Data has 100% coverage over Texas, New Mexico, and most of Oklahoma, all with about 6 supplemental towers (to relay data) on the ground. The barrier to entry for Google is the ground network which Space data eliminates and the bandwidth, which 700MHZ provides. No brainer for Google.

  26. Solon

    February 20th, 2008 at 7:40 pm

    perhaps they can get some tips from their Brazilian office, which used a balloon to launch Maps there last year.

  27. ken

    February 20th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

    jellonailer@gmail.com

  28. Sean

    February 20th, 2008 at 7:44 pm

    What about the 6-pound payload? What happens when this 6-pound computer falls back to the earth?

  29. Nat

    February 20th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    This is interesting project , if Google bought this, they are way ahead of the future technology than Microsoft…

    Nat
    http://www.workersinc.com

  30. Chris

    February 20th, 2008 at 8:47 pm

    @Sean

    In addition to the dairy farmers, they also pay $100 to GPS trackers to locate the falling payloads.

    Not sure how they handle trespassing issues, but apparently they end up in some remote locations.

  31. nemrut

    February 20th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

    I foresee these things getting shot down by all the rednecks coming out of the ‘rural woodwork.’ Interesting idea with good intentions but questionable whether it will be feasible in the US…same reason we dont have high-speed rail as there are too many nut jobs out there..

  32. ross

    February 20th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

    Christ, now Tara Hunt is going to start an air balloon service that hovers in the vicinity of the wi-fi balloons. Do they make air balloons with nifty tables and a cool coworking enviro? FFS. BalloonCamp.

  33. Kevin Burton

    February 20th, 2008 at 10:39 pm

    That’s no balloon, it’s a space station!

    Sorry… couldn’t resist.

  34. Fdx

    February 20th, 2008 at 11:34 pm

    April fools day in february???

  35. Michael Sync

    February 21st, 2008 at 12:02 am

    interesting …

  36. Mark Radoff

    February 21st, 2008 at 12:20 am

    Yes, I’m most curious about:
    - how long they’re up there,
    - how long battery life lasts,
    - how fast they come down (and where).
    - how much of an area does one balloon cover, therefore:
    - how many balloons will be floating around?

    While somebody mentioned there’s never been a weather balloon accident with airplanes, will this scheme significantly increase the number of balloons in the air?
    Mark

  37. HHL-Absolvent

    February 21st, 2008 at 12:51 am

    How do they make sure the ballons stays in place? Don’t they move away through the wind?

  38. Damien

    February 21st, 2008 at 3:29 am

    My wi-fi laptop is lucky if it picks up the house wi-fi hub at the end of the garden. What chance if the node is 80,000 ft away?

  39. Jenkins

    February 21st, 2008 at 4:07 am

    I don’t give a shit what current or ex-googlers say, Google is close to losing their luster. They need to get back to beating their numbers and stop screwing around with funky science projects. They don’t have a right to miss their quarterly numbers.

  40. linebloo

    February 21st, 2008 at 5:59 am

    http://www. i - guide .ro
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  41. Justin

    February 21st, 2008 at 7:12 am

    I am working on a project to make weather balloons; does anyone out there have any knowledge about doing so?

  42. Justin

    February 21st, 2008 at 7:14 am

    justin_buccilli@yahoo.com

  43. Julian

    February 21st, 2008 at 7:45 am

    Not to mention the UFO sightings these things will cause, has any considered the environmental impact of these devices? It seems they believe many people will return the balloons to them once they fall to the Earth. This seems very optimistic and likely a sugar coating. I imagine many of these will drift out to sea. At the very least they are made of biodegradable latext. The rest is supposedly environmentally benign….likely story.

    http://www.spacedata.net/faqs_.....es.html#10

  44. rubu

    February 21st, 2008 at 7:56 am

    While somebody mentioned there’s never been a weather balloon accident with airplanes, will this scheme significantly increase the number of balloons in the air?
    Mark

  45. Rajan Tawate

    February 21st, 2008 at 8:04 am

    I thought Duncan was kidding… :-)

  46. gilltots

    February 21st, 2008 at 8:20 am

    do these balloons float in the blogosphere?

    ha ha! they do now!

  47. WATCHTHEVIDEO

    February 21st, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    WILL EVERYONE WITH QUESTIONS PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO. IT ANSWERS MOST QUESTIONS.

  48. ken

    February 21st, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    A few things based on the comments - The ballons stay up for about 2-3 days covering about 1000 miles (20mph times 48 hours). They payload is released by radio command and drops by parachute. They pay a $35 reward for the payload but it’s bragging rights to find one if you’re a GPS orienteer (they send a beacon signal). Most are returned. Each one has about a 450 mile footprint at that altitude so to cover the SW U.S. it only takes about 5 ballons in a constellation at any one time - the density does not increase. They float above the jet stream and commercial flight lanes - collision is not an issue. They’ve been doing this for a few years and lastly there is a big military impact - how do you think they communicate in Iraq???

  49. sackofduncanriley

    February 21st, 2008 at 3:29 pm

    GOBBLE GOBBLE

    PERSAI OWNS YOU DUNCAN RILEY. IT WILL CONSUME YOUR SOULLLLL!!!
    PERSAI OWNS YOU DUNCAN RILEY. IT WILL CONSUME YOUR SOULLLLL!!!

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