It looks like Google is in full swing to get Project Loon operational in India and it is going all out to ensure there are no obstacles in implementation of the innovative project. We had covered a few days back that Project Loon had to face some questions from Government of India before due to technical glitches.
However, Google has brought in their responses and proposed solutions to these issues so that no matter what, the project is implemented in the right spirit.
Addressing the issue of utilization of same spectrum by the aerial balloons in the project as that of the Telecoms in the country, Google confirmed that network sharing has been solved across other countries in the world and there should not be a case of impedance showing up in signals.
In simple terms, there should not be any distortion or resistance in the signals due to spectrum sharing by the Telecom Operators and Project Loon. We hope Google has thought this out well so that we don’t face more worse issues than we’re already facing in India.
Commenting on the issue, Marian Croak, Vice-President of Access Strategy & Emerging Markets at AT&T Mobility, assured, “One of the biggest concerns has to do with impedance, whether or not we will interfere with spectrum. That’s a discussion we’ve had with telcos around the world and we believe we have an answer to that around spectrum sharing and that we’ve solved that issue, in terms of sharing spectrum so that it doesn’t create impedance.”
Other concerns over Project Loon in India
Apart from the fact that the large balloons twenty kilometers above the surface of the Earth might create disturbance to the current cellular operations due to spectrum sharing, there are growing concerns about hindrance in air traffic currently monitored by Air Traffic Control system. Imagine having to already monitor over 500 flights each day at major cities in the country, and monitor their paths as well so as to ensure that their path is completely off the balloons in the air.
The Defence Ministry also has questions over the the implementation of the project over Military areas where they could be potential obstacles to the aircrafts. Such issues are a national level concern related to security and need to be handled extremely carefully. Although Government of India has given a go-ahead to the project, smaller problems keep cropping up, delaying the launch of project by months.
Google has been working very hard to apply similar solutions as other countries in India, however it needs to lay out the blueprint of the plan in front of the Government officials before launching the project. Government ministers have been having discussions with the Mountain View based company and are awaiting a full fledged response to the potential risks.
We hope it is all sorted out and we get to enjoy the internet-via-balloons technology as soon as possible.