Google’s Internet-Beaming Balloons to Take Off in Indonesia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google’s Internet-beaming balloons are ready to take off on the next phase of their mission to deliver online access in regions where most people live offline.

The balloons will begin hovering in the stratosphere above Indonesia in an expansion of the project announced Wednesday. About 250 million people live in the country composed of about 17,000 islands in that part of Southeast Asia, although only 42 million have Internet access, according to the CIA’s estimates.

Google’s 2-year-old “Project Loon” program aims to change that by transmitting high-speed Internet signals from clusters of balloons floating about 60,000 feet above the Earth.

Although the project is still being funded primarily by money that Google makes from digital advertising, it recently became part of an independent lab called X that is run by Google’s new parent company, Alphabet Inc.

Alphabet frames Project’s Loon as a noble endeavor striving to get about 100 million currently unconnected people tapped into the vast reservoir of knowledge, entertainment and conveniences available online. But it could also enrich Google by expanding the potential audience that can query its search engine, watch video on YouTube, correspond through Gmail and click on digital ads.

Project Loon is still testing its technology, so there is still no estimate when it will start selling the Internet service to households and businesses within range of the balloons.

The Internet access will be sold through wireless service providers in Indonesia, where there the number of mobile phones — about 319 million — outnumber people. But most of those phones don’t connect to the Internet because users can’t afford data plans, or more frequently, live in remote or rocky terrains where it’s impractical or too expensive to install the equipment need to deliver high-speed Internet access.

If things pan out as envisioned, Project Loon will deploy hundreds of balloons that serve as cell towers in the sky, invisible to the naked eye. To pull it off, the project’s engineers must choreograph a high-altitude dance, ensuring that as one balloon drifts out of a targeted territory’s Internet-receiving range, another one will float in to fill the void.

The Indonesian expansion follows extensive testing in New Zealand, Australia and remote areas in California and Brazil. Indonesia’s sheer size and geographic sprawl makes it Project Loon’s most ambitious step yet.

Eventually, Project Loon envisions dispatching its balloons to other unconnected regions in the world, ranging from small villages in Africa to the woods of California.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin envisions Project Loon eventually creating millions of jobs around the world to raise the standard of living for now-impoverished people as they are able to get online to educate themselves and make new connections.

“The emotional distance of the world is shrinking, thanks to the communications we enjoy today,” said Brin, who oversees the X lab as Alphabet’s president.

Google氣球網路計畫 進軍印尼

Google網路連線氣球已經準備在印尼升空，展開為無法上網的印尼偏遠地區民眾提供上網服務的新階段任務。

這些氣球將在印尼空中的同溫層停留。印尼總人口約2億5000萬，散布在全國的1萬7000座島嶼，其中約僅4200萬人可以上網。

Google兩年前推出Loon計畫，試圖透過部署在離地大約1萬8300公尺的大批氣球，傳送高速的網路信號。這項計畫目前主要以來自Google的數位廣告收入支應，最近成為新成立Google母公司「字母公司」獨立實驗室X的一部分。

字母公司希望透過Loon計畫，使目前仍然無法上網的大約一億名印尼人得以上網。Google也可能因為這項計畫而開拓更多用戶。這些人可能使用它的搜尋引擎，收看Google旗下YouTube的影片，透過Gmail與好友連絡，取讀數位廣告。

由於Loon的相關技術還在測試中，目前無法預料它什麼時候可以開始在高空氣球收發訊號的範圍內，為家庭與企業提供網路服務。

印尼人使用的手機約3億1900萬支。這項網路連線服務將透過無線服務供應商提供。不過由於許多手機持有人住在偏遠或交通不便的地區，多數手機無法連線上網。

如果一切順利，Loon計畫將部署數百顆高空氣球。工程師必須事先妥善規畫，以確保如果一顆氣球偏離原定的訊號收發範圍，另一顆氣球可以適時替補。

在此之前，這項計畫已在紐西蘭、澳洲，以及加州、巴西的偏遠地區實驗。印尼幅員遼闊，是該計畫至今最具企圖心的實驗區。

Google希望最終可以在全球其他至今仍然無法上網的地區部署這些高空氣球，進而創造數百萬個工作機會。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/10/28/business/ap-us-alphabet-internet-balloons.html

2015-10-29．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯陳世欽