Google X Lab has been working on an ambitious project that will bring internet access, therefore access to knowledge, to billions of people living in rural and remote areas of the globe. After over a year of testing, next step of Project Loon aims at creating a semi-permanent ring of balloons in the South of the world; this ring will provide fast internet connection sending its signal to ground stations and mobile phones. The pilot test has been conducted in New Zealand, where thirty high-altitude balloons were launched creating a network able to support 50 user simultaneous connection. Google balloons have been studied to fly twice higher than airplane routes, they float in the stratosphere and take advantage of the layers of wind to better arrange a large communication network. The crucial technical problem Project Loon faces is maximising the number of connections a single balloon can handle. For the time being, it has been estimated that a single balloon can support up to a hundred of simultaneous connections; a number that considerably drops in case of downloads and video-calls. The gLAWcal Team LIBEAC project Wednesday, 1 October 2014 (Source: Tech Times) This news has been realized by gLAWcal—Global Law Initiatives for Sustainable Development in collaboration with the University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy and the University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy which are both beneficiaries of the European Union Research Executive Agency IRSES Project “Liberalism in Between Europe And China” (LIBEAC) coordinated by Aix-Marseille University (CEPERC). This work has been realized in the framework of Workpackages 4, coordinated by University Institute of European Studies (IUSE) in Turin, Italy.

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