Google Eyes Sending Cell Towers Aloft?

A company that offers balloon-based cell phone service may have caught the attention of Google, according to the Wall Street Journal.

We’ve already grown accustomed to Google taking some pretty creative approaches to the way it does things, so it should really come as no surprise that the company has some pretty pie-in-the-sky ideas for setting up a cell network. Or more accurately, balloon-in-the-sky ideas. According to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal, Google may be investigating giant balloons as a means for replacing cell phone towers.

The article cites sources who say Google has its eyes on Space Data Corp., a company that has already put the balloon concept into practice. Space Data launches ten balloons daily in the Southern U.S., where they are used by truckers and oil rigs for their brief 24-hour lifespans. The balloons carry cell phone transmitters 20 miles up into the stratosphere, where, with the advantage of height and a clear line of sight,  Space Data claims they provide coverage for a coverage circle of 400 miles, far more than a traditional tower.

While the balloons only last for a day, they are inexpensive, and relaunched daily. Space Data hires workers in other fields, including airport mechanics and dairy farmers, to launch the balloons for $50 apiece, then pays amateur hikers and GPS hobbyists to find their old equipment when it drops back to earth on a parachute, for $100 per recovery.

According to the Journal’s sources, Google’s interest in the technology lies in expanding coverage to rural areas, where sparse populations and wide areas make building stationary cell phone towers inefficient. Neither company commented on the story.