Hear ye, hear ye! Free Internet is coming around the world.
For most of us, internet connectivity is a relatively painless and simple process. For example: you’re sitting at home. You open your laptop. You see the Wi-Fi icon in the corner – all bars are lit up. You’re connected! Another example: You’re on the road. You pull over to view your smartphone’s directions to a new restaurant in town. You see your phone’s “4G LTE” signal flashing. You’re connected! Life is great.
But what if you desperately need access to the web while you’re traveling on a dirt road in a small, rural town, and the nearest modern infrastructure is miles away?
Or, what if you’re visiting another country and you plan on sending regular email updates to your loved ones, but then you discover the internet isn’t available. Worse than that, there’s no infrastructure for it!
There is NO “internet?” GASP! Yep. Unbelievable as it is, not everyone in the world has access to the internet.
Here’s the good news – your odds of finding yourself without an internet connection are improving every day!
Google’s Balloons
Google says two out of three people in the world don’t have Internet access – and that’s a lot of people. Google aims to change this with…get ready – balloons.
No, not those kinds of balloons.
Since 2011, Google has been manufacturing and testing high-altitude balloons that will float in the stratosphere, giving internet connection to people from their LTE-enabled devices and phones. If successful, this new floating infrastructure could establish the first available, global, internet connectivity.
Known as “Project Loon,” these balloons will travel high above the earth (twice as high as airplanes and the weather!) and drift according to the wind stream. Google is partnering with telecommunication companies around the world to enable people on the ground to “connect to the balloon network directly from their phones” (Loon for All, Google.com).
What do these balloons look like? They’re made from polyethylene plastic and they’re huge: they measure 49 feet across and are 39 feet tall. Pumped with helium, each balloon carries with it a small box that is stuffed with electronic equipment (software and radio antennas). To provide consistent internet service, and at any time, Project Loon can track each and every balloon to ensure nonstop and continuous Internet coverage as it floats over peoples’ heads, high up in the sky.
Project Loon has made several test runs of these balloons in Brazil, New Zealand and the U.S. In 2016, Project Loon will be deploying balloons over Sri Lanka. The entire island will have broadband internet. This translates to approximately 22 million people.
Cool concept isn’t it? Google is far beyond the concept stage, too. Check out their video:
Facebook Initiative
In late 2013, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, paved the way for an initiative to provide internet access to all people around the world – Internet.org. Zuckerberg views internet connectivity as a human right, and established a partnership in which many companies and developers can join hands and work towards creating a fully connected world. If you’re interested in learning more, watch this informative video created by Internet.org.
The initiative has succeeded in bringing free online services to 17 countries across 3 different continents, and over 9 million users have participated. However, some have criticized this initiative because, unlike Google’s Project Loon, Facebook’s internet.org project favors its own services – over its competitors.
Satellite Connectivity is the Likely Long-Term Solution
Here’s our last example. Ready?
Picture yourself five years from now.
Say, for the sake of this preposterous example, you find yourself in the middle of the desert. You’re lost. There’s no food, no water, and no transportation. Just you…and that evil vulture hovering above you.
But, hey, you’re not worried; you can whip out your phone, connect to satellite internet, and ask for help!
This may sound like a futuristic dream, but thanks to innovative projects such as Richard Branson and Greg Wyler’s “OneWeb,” such possibilities may exist before the end of this decade.
OneWeb plans to create a large network of low-orbit satellites capable of delivering LTE, 3G, and Wi-Fi connectivity to people around the world. These satellites will orbit the globe at a substantially lower altitude than most satellites and are able to deliver communication nearly 40 times faster.
As with all potential technology game-changers, OneWeb is not without criticism… or passionate competition. Elon Musk recently stated that his own network of satellites designed to achieve global internet connectivity, the SpaceX project, could be ready as early as 2020 – just 1 year after OneWeb is expected to first bring their network online. In fact, Musk has openly admitted his disapproval of the lack of sophistication that OneWeb brings to the table, and looks forward to engaging in competition. On the other hand, Branson suggests a high probability that OneWeb and Musk will end up working together in some way, since the physical space may be too limited for multiple satellite networks to exist. Whether OneWeb and SpaceX decide to duke it out or become friends will be an interesting development to watch for in the coming years.
No Need to Fear, the Internet is Here!
Well not quite yet for everyone, but all signs point towards this changing very soon. So, for all you out there suffering from “macriapodiadictuophobia” – yes, that’s the closest transliterated Greek neologism we’ve seen anyone come up with for “fear of being away from the internet” – don’t worry, the future looks bright! Internet connectivity is on pace to be accessible around the world in just a matter of a few years.
Sources Used:
https://www.google.com/loon/
http://www.dw.com/en/internetorg-free-access-or-digital-prison/a-18653851
http://qz.com/466840/googles-high-altitude-internet-balloons-will-soon-connect-all-of-sri-lanka
https://internet.org/
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