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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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.