While Facebook is working on a venture that deploys drones in remote and rural areas to provide Internet connectivity, Google’s Project Loon envisages use of helium-filled balloons to provide data connectivity in remote regions. The two are trying these approaches as alternative models to reach data connectivity aerially to users instead of the traditional route of installing towers and optic fibre cable networks.
Project Loon
Google hopes to launch the Loon project in India and wants to start testing for it soon, but the government has flagged some concerns such as possible interference with cellular network transmissions due to the frequency band it seeks to use. Google is keen on working with telecom operators in the 700 Mhz-900 MHz spectrum band for Project Loon. According to Google, each balloon can provide connectivity to a ground area about 40 km in diameter using a wireless communications technology called 4G.