

How Google Plans To Work With Telcos On Project Loon - a_olt
http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/06/how-google-plans-to-work-with-telcos-on-project-loon/

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xhrpost
First I've heard of project Loon, sounds interesting. Is anyone familiar with
the FAA implications of flying "anything"? Example, I presumably can go in my
back yard and launch a kite on a windy day and let it fly a few hundred feet
in the air (your average kid spool will give you 500 feet). I don't attach
blinking red lights to it and I don't call anyone to tell them I'm doing it.
Now, what if I got a balloon and floated it above my house with a wire going
down. Assume I'm able to make the balloon stay up hundreds of feet for a few
weeks despite weather and the weight of the cord. Also assume non-commercial,
could I legally "just do it"?

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chrisa
Here are the FAA rules about balloons and kites: [http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-
bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=2ede283f148...](http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-
bin/retrieveECFR?gp=&SID=2ede283f148804503362bdc410923e24&r=PART&n=14y2.0.1.3.15#14:2.0.1.3.15.2)

So if the balloon or kite is a certain size, there are actually lighting and
notification requirements.

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timdierks
It makes a lot of sense to partner with local telcos to serve customers, but
it makes it less likely that Google would be able to leverage providing this
infrastructure into broader commercial advantage.

I wonder how much control Google can have over balloon routes? In the limiting
case, if they had none, they would have little negotiating power, since they
have the infrastructure over a country one way or another and have to deal
with that country's carriers. If they have more control, they can choose how
to route the balloons so they don't pay to launch balloons over countries they
haven't done deals with.

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wmf
It sounds like they're going to blanket certain latitudes with balloons and
they'll probably just turn off the ground-facing radios when over countries
where they don't have permission to operate.

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tedchs
Here is the official project site, which answers many of the questions here:
[http://www.google.com/loon/](http://www.google.com/loon/)

