Loon-atic Fringe: Health and Safety Warnings About Google's "Project Loon" Blasting WiFi From 12-18 Miles Above Date Back to 2015. The FCC Approved It Anyway.

By B.N. Frank

Activist Post has reported before about satellites and pseudo-satellites being sent into the sky and space to blast WiFi and 5G from at us despite warnings from experts about this being biologically and environmental harmful AND there being too much space junk up there already.

In December 2015, Netcompetition.org published a very detailed article about Google’s “Project Loon” being used to blast WiFi at Earth from about 12-18 miles above us, “Google’s Secret US Loon Test Implicates the FCC, FAA, EPA, State, & DOD/NSA.”

It was written by Scott Cleland who seems to be a highly credible source. The entire article is worth reading. It’s also deeply unsettling. Excerpts include:

Are several arms of the U.S. Government giving Google special treatment to enable it to secretly conduct a nationwide, two-year, test of Project Loon — Google’s ambitious scheme to be the first company to commercialize the stratosphere — in a manner that risks public safety, and environmental, and other harms?

Or are some agencies like the FAA, EPA, State, or DOD/NSA largely in the dark and unaware of how Google’s “secret commercially-valuable plan” awaiting approval at the FCC could disrupt fulfillment of their government duties?

Summary

In a nutshell, Google is asking the FCC to very quickly and quietly approve a commercially-secret national experimental radio license for a high-altitude balloon broadband ISP network that Google calls Project Loon and brands as “Balloon-Powered Internet for Everyone.”

[…]

However, Google’s unprecedented plans to supply global broadband access via high-altitude balloons and/or drones raise many serious safety, environmental and national security issues that Google clearly does not want aired publicly. This analysis spotlights the serious hidden risks that this bold technological experiment and ISP approach presents to aviation safety, the environment, and foreign relations.

Suspicious Circumstances Warrant Close Scrutiny

The exceptional timing, the expected quick FCC turnaround, and the extraordinary level of secrecy of Google’s FCC request to test a new national public wireless ISP service, are collectively suspicious for these reasons.

[…]

Also consider that Google wants to start the experiment January 1, 2016. No other company could expect to get USG approval for such a complex, national experiment in just ~2-3 weeks (given Thanksgiving, Hanukah, and Christmas) on one of the most far-reaching, and unprecedented, national experimental radio license requests the FCC may have ever considered. Google’s request clearly warrants (as this analysis documents) significant due diligence, FCC interagency coordination, and international coordination (Canada, Mexico, the EU, Russia, China and others).

What is Google Likely Hiding with its Extreme Secrecy?

One theory is Google’s interest in confidentiality is less about protecting its “secret commercially valuable plan,” and more about not attracting public attention to how politically wired Google is that it can confidently ram through multiple simultaneous government agency approvals in a very tight timeframe, despite apparent public safety, environmental and other issues.

Given how much commercial favoritism Google has enjoyed from the U.S. Executive Branch, (see evidence here, here, here, here, here, and here), it understandably does not want any more public attention on the unseemly special treatment Google routinely expects the USG to lavish on Google.

Scott wasn’t alone in his objections. On March 17, 2016 StopGlobalWiFi.org reported about how despite all the reasons not to approve the Google Loon experiment, the FCC did it anyway. Excerpts include:

Based on details in the application, the experiments may take place at any location and any time or continuously, will pollute public and private environments indoors and outdoors in the U.S. with microwave radiation, and do not include any requirement to notify people in the area who will be exposed to an altered experimental environment.

[…]

The microwave radiation utilized by wireless technology for communication is part of the radiofrequency (RF) spectrum. Project Loon uses both ground-level and balloon-borne RF-generating equipment designed to encourage proliferation of RF radiation reliant wireless communication systems, particularly in areas formerly without radiation saturation.

Over 200 scientists have signed an Appeal to the United Nations asking for RF limits that are more protective.

[…]

China and Russia, as well as other formerly Soviet countries, have RF limits that are one hundred times more protective than the FCC’s RF limits. Salzburg, Austria has RF limits that are one million to ten million times more protective.

StopGlobalWiFi.org continues to write press releases about their objections and they aren’t alone.

While we’re discussing Loons – since 2015, Facebook has wanted to use drones similar in function to Google’s balloons to blast WiFi from the sky at us too:

From Arstechnica .com

Facebook has made significant progress in a project to build solar-powered drones that can deliver Internet connectivity using a mix of lasers and radio signals, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday.

“I’m excited to announce we’ve completed construction of our first full scale aircraft, Aquila, as part of our Internet.org effort,” Zuckerberg wrote. “Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down Internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time. We’ve also made a breakthrough in laser communications technology. We’ve successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That’s ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away.”

[…]

The network will operate similarly to Google’s Project Loon. While Loon uses balloons instead of drones, the aircraft in both networks distribute signals to each other to increase range.

Lasers will be used for the drones to communicate with each other, while the drones will communicate with the ground using radio signals. “A ground station will transmit a radio Internet signal to a mother aircraft that will then feed other aircraft in the constellation using laser technology,” with the drones sending radio Internet signals down to users on the ground, Facebook explained in a video that accompanied Zuckerberg’s Facebook post.

Thanks Mark – NOT.

Now back to Google Loon – the project is not a secret anymore. Anyone can track these balloons, and it’s no surprise that more people everywhere are starting to freak out about having WiFi blasted at them from above. After all, we’re all being blasted with enough of it on Earth already. It’s not harmless. The laws don’t protect us and government agencies (including the FCC) don’t seem interested in changing that.