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"We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy-and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon-but there's solid science behind it. "

"We believe that it might actually be possible to build a ring of balloons, flying around the globe on the stratospheric winds, that provides Internet access to the earth below. It's very early days, but we've built a system that uses balloons, carried by the wind at altitudes twice as high as commercial planes, to beam Internet access to the ground at speeds similar to today's 3G networks or faster. As a result, we hope balloons could become an option for connecting rural, remote, and underserved areas, and for helping with communications after natural disasters. The idea may sound a bit crazy-and that's part of the reason we're calling it Project Loon-but there's solid science behind it. "

"Sending small cameras to ultra-high altitudes with weather balloons is a do-it-yourself craze these days and today's activities have more of a "let's see what happens" feel than any rigorous product testing. The team, made up of Google engineers and students from the University of California, Santa Cruz, is mainly curious to see how well the phone's sensors cope with a freezing cold near-vacuum."

Google Nexus now joins the list of iPHones and digital cameras that have been raised into near earth orbit by students. All that remains is to slingshot one into space with a big rubber band .. or for one to land in my back yard :-)

"Google is launching huge balloons to bring the Internet to remote and difficult terrain - think mountain ranges, archipelagos and jungles - beginning with New Zealand."