Google has unveiled plans to roll out free wireless networks across Africa and Asia using high-altitude blimps and balloons. If the project is succesful, 1 billion previously unconnected people will have internet access.

More, from Wired:

Meanwhile, back on the ground, Google lobbyists are targeting regulators across developing countries to allow them 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.

Small-scale trials are underway in Cape Town, South Africa, where a base station is broadcasting signals to wireless access boxes in high schools over several kilometres. Software detects which areas of the spectrum aren’t being used for TV broadcast and can be used for the network at any given time.

In case you hadn’t already grasped the fact that internet access has a direct positive correlation to the growth of a nation’s GDP, and that Africa and Asia both suffer from gaping holes in reliable internet coverage, you’ll now understand that this is a very big deal for Africa and Asia, and human kind at large.

Isn’t that excellent? That’s excellent.

[Source : wired]