Google Inc (GOOG) Getting Creative in Africa

A lot of people take internet access for granted. They expect to be able to connect no matter where they are. While this may be easy enough for people in the United States, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) realizes that this is not the case in other parts of the world.

With this in mind, the search engine giant has set out to make some major changes in Africa and Asia.

According to a report by Wired, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) blimps will carry wireless signals across Africa. If things work out as planned, the company will be able to connect roughly one billion people to the web spanning from Africa to Southeast Asia.

This would be a huge accomplishment for Google, to say the least.

Google has talked about similar plans in the past, such as this one that can be found on the company’s official blog.

Here is more from the Wired Article:

“To help enable the campaign, Google has been putting together an ecosystem of low-cost smartphones running Android on low-power microprocessors. Rather than traditional infrastructure, Google’s signal will be carried by high-altitude platforms – balloons and blimps – that can transmit to areas of hundreds of square kilometres.”

As you can see, this is not the same system that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and other companies rely on in more developed regions of the world. That being said, the company has to get creative if it is going to move forward with the project and help the billion + people in this area who do not have access to the Internet.

Unfortunately, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is going to run into problems along the way. For example, the company is in the midst of discussing with regulators the ability to “use airwaves currently reserved for television broadcasts – which operate at lower frequencies and can therefore penetrate buildings and travel longer distances than current WiFi technology.”

While this idea may appear far fetched, Google is already on the move. In Cape Town, South Africa, for example, “a base station is broadcasting signals to wireless access boxes in high schools over several kilometres.”

It will be interesting to see how this technology works out in the years to come, and whether or not Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is successful in getting the project up and running.

One thing is for sure: if Google is able to make waves and bring the Internet to this part of the world, via blimps, it will be a concept that could potentially catch on in other areas.

Google is ahead of the curve with this one, and appear to be onto something big. For the sake of this region, let’s hope the search engine giant makes good on its plans.