Whoa! Google to power Amazon's internet. Wait, oh, not that Amazon. The other one. The rainforest

Loon, an Alphabet-owned subsidiary, is collaborating with an internet service provider in Peru to set up wireless broadband internet over the Amazon rainforest using the Chocolate Factory's balloon fleet. If everything goes to plan, people living in the remote jungles will hopefully have internet access next year using the …

[MachDiamond]

The biggest challenge

is building a business model that can work with the very limited amount of money people living in the Amazon rain forest have to spend on internet. They may not be a good target market for companies to be interested in sponsoring the tech to make it work.

It's a lot like Starlink being sold to investors as a way to connect the millions of people that don't have access to the internet. At this point, we are talking about people in remote villages. Limited road access. Nomadic tribes. ie, people that don't participate in the greater world economy. I'm sure they would find it interesting. At least those with some tech savvy and literacy skills, but they won't be shopping through Amazon or ordering up food deliveries from M&S. It may also be tough for them to pay a monthly access bill and purchase the required hardware which will always be shipped with the wrong plug (or alligator clips for 3rd world connections). It will be interesting to see if the satellites will report back where they are beaming signals down to so Netflix can blackout anybody not paying in same currency as the region nominally trades in. Nevermind those places where payment is preferred in anything but the national coin.

[Pascal Monett]

Balloons

Okay, the idea seems interesting, and I'm guessing that 20 kilometers high is good enough to avoid stormy weather, but there seems to be a rather continuous cycle of replacement built into these things. That is going to increase costs.

Also, is there enough helium to go around ? I seem to recall that we're running out of that stuff.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no escape from Google's Sauron eye even in the deepest recesses of the Amazon.

[Dave123]

I’m sure the lumberjacks can’t wait to have internet access. They’re the ones with cash to pay for the service, not the locals.

[Jim84]

Afghanistan

I read an article about the Taliban forcing the national phone operator there to turn off cellphone towers before the election to limit the information available to people.

This could possibly be a solution to internet denial by the taliban.

Of course a better solution would be to legalise drugs in the West to cut off the billion dollars plus of funding they get from heroin each year (yes if you legalise drugs in the west price will go down and quality will go up and more people will die, but you'll have more police resources to spend on other areas and less arseholes like the Taliban and FARC sustaining inusrgencies off drug profits).