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Take a closer look at Google’s Project Loon and Microsoft’s White Spaces Project that aim to provide internet access to rural areas.
Udit Roy
Project Loon
What is Project Loon?
Officially announced in June 2013, Google’s project comprises a network of balloons that travel approximately 20 km above the Earth’s surface in the stratosphere and provide connectivity in rural and remote areas through a wireless communication called LTE (long-term evolution).
How does it work?
Individual balloons can provide connectivity to a ground area of around 80 km in diameter. To use LTE, Project Loon partners with telecommunications companies to share cellular spectrum so that people will be able to access the internet from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices.
The balloons relay wireless traffic from smartphones and other devices back to the global Internet using high-speed links.
Solar panel and wind is used to power electronic equipment in the balloon throughout the day.
How do the balloons travel?
In the stratosphere, winds are layered and each layer varies in speed and direction. Project Loon uses software algorithms to determine where its balloons need to go, then moves each one into a layer of wind blowing in the right direction. By moving with the wind, the balloons can be arranged to form one large communications network.
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How big are the balloons?
The balloons measure 15 metres wide by 12 metres tall when fully inflated. The inflatable part are made from sheets of polyethylene plastic.
What happens if a balloon needs to be brought down?
When a balloon is ready to be taken out of service, gas is released to bring the balloon down to Earth in a controlled descent. IF a balloon drops too quickly, a parachute attached to the top of the envelope (the inflated portion) is deployed.
White Spaces Project
What is the White Spaces Project?
Microsoft’s project aims to provide low-cost broadband connectivity using the white spaces, a technology that utilises unused television spectrum to deliver low-cost Internet.
What is white spaces?
Broadband spectrum is generally organised into frequency “bands” (think of the channels on TV) to eliminate “bleeding” of transmissions from one channel onto another (like the electronic “snow” you sometimes see during a TV program). These spaces or gaps between various frequency bands used by television companies for broadcast are called white spaces they ensure the signals do not interfere with one another. In India, Microsoft proposes to utilise this unused spectrum from television for internet connectivity.
How is it different from Wi-Fi?
As per an official in the Communications Ministry, wi-fi has a range of about 100 meters, whereas the 200-300 MHz spectrum band available in the white space can reach up to 10 km. The spectrum has an advantage over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth since it can travel over long distances and pass through walls easily.
What companies gain
According to industry experts, the gains to companies are multifold. Firstly, in this experimental phase, the companies don’t need to build physical infrastructure such as towers.
“The height of the towers, at present, depends on the buildings they are on. In such zones, for better coverage you need towers with really high antennas. If the concept takes off, firms can save a lot on their capex as costs might come down,” according to Romal Shetty, partner and head of telecommunications, KPMG.
Additionally, the firms can gain from the early-mover advantage, as there is a large portion of the population which still doesn’t have access to basic internet facilities. Connecting these people to the internet will promote smartphone adoption, which in turn leads to a huge growth in user base for all technology-based companies.
“A lot of content can be pushed to the untapped population. Moreover, global companies can learn a lot from these projects that will help them in emerging markets around the world such Africa and South America,” said Hemant Joshi, telecom leader, Deloitte India said.
Fields such as e-healthcare, online education, net banking, agricultural knowledge and smart energy can be accessed by the people through the internet, which, in turn will provide companies with a previously untapped market.
Challenge ahead
Telecom companies have been eager to know the policy stand of the government regarding white spaces.
So far, despite the nod to an experimental pilot projects, communications and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had mentioned that once the results come, the final decision on policy initiatives would be taken after carrying out all due diligence and it would be consistent with security requirements.
The experimental ‘go-ahead’ assumes significance as in December last year, Prasad has said that the frequency used by Project Loon would interfere with cellular transmissions.
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