#72 Inside Google's experiments: Balloons & Fiber

From sending solar-powered balloons into the stratosphere to offering free Wi-Fi in parks, Google is quietly spending hundreds of millions of dollars on nascent internet services that may one day challenge the telecom and cable companies.

In recent months, Google has announced plans to bring free wireless internet access to 7,000 Starbucks cafes across America, eventually displacing AT&T; it has asked US regulators for broader access to wireless airwaves; and it has launched 30 solar-powered balloons over the South Pacific ocean, designed to beam the internet to remote regions.

Then there is Google Fiber, the high-speed cable TV and internet service that was introduced in Kansas City late last year and that will be expanded soon to Austin and Provo, Utah. Fiber delivers internet speeds at 1 gigabit per second, as much as 100 times faster than the average U.S. network.

Air balloons
With $54 billion in cash, Google can afford to fund experiments such as Fiber and Loon - the air balloon project run by Google X, the secretive arm of the company that specializes in bold, futuristic projects such as robot cars.

Loon involves creating an airborne wireless network using 12-meter-tall, super-pressured air balloons powered by the sun. They would drift along relatively slower air currents in the stratosphere and run off batteries at night.

In June, Google launched a test of 30 balloons over New Zealand equipped to deliver 3G-like wireless speeds to ground antennas that in turn transmit the signal to wireless devices. The goal is to eventually keep a large fleet of balloons in the skies, though analysts say Google will face many technical and regulatory challenges operating such a network.