Google is testing drones for delivering high-speed wireless Internet

The report said Google has built several prototype devices that use millimetre wave radio transmissions and is testing them at Virgin Galactic’s Gateway to Space terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico, originally designed for Virgin Galactic’s spaceflights. This means that data can potentially be transmitted at speeds of up to 40 times more than current 4G LTE network systems. Using what’s called a phased array, however, Google and others could potentially focus the transmissions over greater distances. The initiative, under Project SkyBender, will try to figure out a way to deliver super high-speed internet to users. Project SkyBender is being developed by the same Google division responsible for Project Loon, a team that delivers Internet to rural regions by floating balloons through the atmosphere. These tests will continue until July or so, which is how long the Federal Communications Commission has given the company permission to run them.

The project adds one more strand to Google’s recent experiments with millimeter wave technology.

5G Google will also be testing things out and will rely on millimeter waves.

The search engine giant now pays Virgin Galactic a $1,000-per-day fee for use of the hangar.

Microsoft has also been busy in this area with its White Spaces project proposing the use of unused spectrum from television for internet connectivity. “It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go”, Jacques Rudell, an assistant electrical engineering professor at the University of Washington, told The Guardian.

As well as testing the Skybender drones, Google is also testing piloted aircraft which have been codenamed Centaur. These planes, which can stay up for months will cruise at 60,000 ft, much higher than commercial aircrafts, and have a footprint of 100 km diameter. As part of the tests, Google is using an experimental new technology known as “millimeter-wave radio”, which, according to The Guardian, “could underpin next generation 5G wireless internet access”. Be it 3G or 4G, we can never be satisfied with the kind of speed that we are now getting, such is the need for getting smoother access to the internet. And Google notes that the test is an expansion of earlier tests in Winnemucca, Nevada, which Business Insider has reported was among the early sites for Google’s Loon experiments.