There is one thing I don’t understand: the balloon can have a powerful enough antenna to send information to a phone 60,000 or more feet away, how does the phone talk back to the balloon?
It seems there is a ground based repeater, at least initially. See the second article picture: 'Project Loon team members install a Loon Internet antenna while schoolchildren look on.'
That said we have satellite phones now. Given the lower altitude of balloons getting a signal back should be realistic over future developments.
It's not direct phone to balloon communication. It's phone to fixed ground based wifi, fixed ground base to balloon. Although this is kind of glossed over in a lot of PR.
Google made a different kind of advance with Loon when it added the capability to send data using the LTE spectrum—making it possible for people to connect directly to the Internet with their mobile phones. (Loon’s original Wi-Fi connection required a base station and a special antenna.)
Possible if you have a giant antenna and a large power source attached to your phone. I'll believe it when I see it. Getting LTE over that distance is very unlikely to work with standard hardware. Also consider that the Balloons power is very limited compared to a base station on the ground.
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There is one thing I don’t understand: the balloon can have a powerful enough antenna to send information to a phone 60,000 or more feet away, how does the phone talk back to the balloon?
GSM cell's can be up to 40 km after which the problem becomes the timing (and 70 with extended cells). With cell's overhead, 20 km should be oke.
Cell phones already do that now and the sky usually has the best line of sight.
It seems there is a ground based repeater, at least initially. See the second article picture: 'Project Loon team members install a Loon Internet antenna while schoolchildren look on.'
That said we have satellite phones now. Given the lower altitude of balloons getting a signal back should be realistic over future developments.
The article says the repeater is only for wifi, phones connect directly.
Antenna gain is retro directive.
What does that mean?
Antenna gain impacts the amplification of the sent signal, as well as the amplification of the received signal.
It's not direct phone to balloon communication. It's phone to fixed ground based wifi, fixed ground base to balloon. Although this is kind of glossed over in a lot of PR.
from the article:
Possible if you have a giant antenna and a large power source attached to your phone. I'll believe it when I see it. Getting LTE over that distance is very unlikely to work with standard hardware. Also consider that the Balloons power is very limited compared to a base station on the ground.