海角大神

Last year, a record 3.5 billion people used the internet. That sounds impressive, but it鈥檚 less than half the world鈥檚 total population. An initiative by Google parent Alphabet, entitled Project Loon, aims to bring the rest online using high-altitude, internet-streaming balloons.

And that initiative is progressing faster than expected. The Alphabet employee who leads X, the company鈥檚 鈥渕oonshot factory,鈥� that 鈥渢imelines are starting to move up鈥� on the initiative.

, 鈥�Captain of Moonshots鈥� Astro Teller said that the team had 鈥渆xceeded even their own expectations for how well their smart software algorithms can help their balloons navigate the globe, and in the process they鈥檝e leapt much closer to a day when balloon-powered Internet could become a reality for people in rural and remote regions of the globe.鈥�

The unlikely merger of balloons and internet not only reflects the brainpower of Loon鈥檚 team, but also the business incentive to get the offline half of humanity connected.

Since they first flew in 1783, hot-air balloons have been at the mercy of the winds. Instead of steering, balloons must rise or fall to catch a particular current.

As recently as 1999, that process required a human pilot. That year, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones completed the first nonstop around-the-world balloon flight.

鈥淢any modern balloons are equipped with autopilots, allowing their crews to sleep. An autopilot monitors a balloon's altitude, automatically firing the craft's hot-air burners as needed to maintain the constant height,鈥澨�.听鈥淏ut that is only for periods when course changes are not needed, and most pilots are awake most of the time.鈥�

Eighteen years later, through the stratosphere鈥檚 highly-stratified wind currents, enabling them to hover as needed over a particular area for weeks on end. 听

How far this technology could have come without Google鈥檚 support may never be known. But the enthusiasm for Project Loon that X's听Mr. Teller听expresses in his blog post suggests the venture has reached a sweet spot of eye-catching technology and business promise.

While speaking with Bloomberg last year, Teller wrote the word 鈥減rogress鈥� next to a dollar sign on a white board to make clear that the 鈥渕oonshot factory鈥檚鈥� work . Even as Alphabet pushed ahead with Project Loon, it cut back on Google Fiber, a broadband cable-laying venture, as too costly and time-consuming.

For a company that commands 30 percent 鈥� 鈥� of total online ad revenue, hooking up more internet users may make Project Loon a money-earning venture. Facebook also sees money to be made in bringing internet to underserved locales, but it鈥檚 focusing on drones rather than balloons.

But both firms could face headwinds over the developing countries they aim to serve, as听海角大神听reported last February. Free Basics, Facebook's competing proposal to offer affordable internet access around the world, has come under criticism in India and Egypt because of questions about the company's intentions.

The service 鈥渆arned comparisons to the British East India Company and raised questions about whether the service violates net neutrality,鈥� as Max听Lewontin wrote for the Monitor.

For the time being, Google has managed to avoid similar opposition by working with local governments and telecom providers.

But not all of the laws governing wireless communications have caught up with the new technology. The Sri Lankan government, for instance, from the Geneva-based Telecommunications Union to let Google use the same frequency as the country鈥檚 public broadcasters.

But challenges like these don鈥檛 seem to have fazed Mr. Teller. 鈥淣o one could have pretended to know how to build a network of free-flying, high-altitude balloons that could beam Internet to the earth below,鈥澨齢e writes, adding that 鈥渢he Loon team has persevered and brought the seemingly impossible within reach.鈥�