Google Launches Balloons to Bring the Internet to Remote Regions

Google is launching huge balloons to bring the Internet to remote and difficult terrain — think mountain ranges, archipelagos and jungles — beginning with New Zealand.

Last week, Google launched 30 Internet-enabling balloons in the Canterbury region of New Zealand, with plans to launch 20 more. The balloons, which resemble white, effervescent jellyfish, use a combination of wind, solar power and "complex algorithms" to stay in a fixed part of the sky, says project leader Mike Cassidy. The balloons communicate with antennas placed on the ground tens of thousands of feet below to provide Internet access to those areas.