Google has selected Queensland, Australia, as the next spot to test the Wi-Fi balloons in Project Loon, which aims to provide Internet access across the globe.
The tests, which begin in December, will involve collaboration with Telstra, the biggest cellular carrier in Australia, according to The Guardian. The telecom company will be tasked with supplying base stations that will be used for communicating with the balloons, as well as access to a part of its radio spectrum.
Project Loon will have the stations send signals up to the balloons, which will carry antennas beaming 4G-like signals 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) below to homes and phones. Google plans to have the balloons form a ring and circle the Earth on westerly stratospheric winds. The balloons will be able to stay in the air for about 100 days.
The search giant's collaboration with Telstra marks the first time Google has worked with a carrier to beam Internet to people below, and it also follows after the company announced earlier this year that wireless carriers around the world will be involved in the project, The Verge reported.
Tests have already taken place for the balloons in the U.S. and New Zealand, where Google ran into several problems, such as a low-flying balloon destroying power lines and knocking out a Washington town's electricity supply, as well as emergency services in New Zealand rushing to a balloon that landed in the ocean after misidentifying it as a crashed plane.
Google X, the company's division that is developing driverless cars, has been working on Project Loon since mid-2011, The Guardian reported. In addition to providing Internet access to the two-thirds of the world that doesn't have it, the company plans to eventually bring connectivity to areas struck by natural disasters.
