Google abandons the project of drones the Internet – ZDNet France

as We know, the giants of the Web are multiplying the projects to provide Internet to populations who are deprived of them. Laudable goal, but sometimes the economic reality and technology is fraught with good intentions. This is clearly the case for Alphabet (Google) who has decided to abandon its project of drones by the sun.

bear in mind that Google has offered in 2014 the specialist in unmanned aerial vehicles on solar Titan Aerospace for an amount held in secret. These drones are theoretically capable of flying at 20 km above the sea level, while being powered by solar energy. Outside of the connection to the Internet, Google pointed to the possible use of these unmanned aerial vehicles for natural disasters, for example.

For many, these drones were still in the development phase and despite a few trials in real conditions (in New Mexico), it seems that the conditions are not met for a full-scale launch.

bear in mind that Google has also sold its shares in the provider of satellite Internet O3b. The latter operates a constellation of a dozen satellites and provides Internet access to the islands as well as cruise ships.

But for Google, no question of abandoning the party. It is just a matter of being pragmatic. The american giant will now focus on its the most advanced project : Loon. Launched in 2013, it is to create an Internet access distributed by a network of air balloons navigating at high altitude (20 km) and also powered by the sun. The idea is to bring a connection to the Internet equivalent to 3G in areas not covered.

” This idea may seem far-fetched, but it is based on a solid scientific basis. “ensures that Google says have already developed a technology to control the trajectory of the balloons by using algorithms and the power of its servers.

After testing in real conditions have been conducted in New Zealand, launches “trade” have been made in Sri Lanka, following an agreement with the government of the country, and in Indonesia. Alphabet, the parent company of Google has reached agreements with three operators for indonesian Indosat, Telkomsel and XL Axiata.