Daily Monitor
Thursday February 04 2021
The closure follows an announcement in which Google said the project was “an unsustainable business model”.
In 2019, Loon LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, signed a Letter of Agreement in Kampala with officials from Uganda Civil Aviation Authority, in which high altitude solar powered Internet balloons with floating masts over Uganda’s airspace, would be established at an altitude of 500,000 feet.
The balloons would create an aerial wireless network to provide Internet and telecom network connectivity to rural and remote areas.
Dr Anna Prouse, the Loon LLC head of government relations, had said then that Google would partner with telecoms to tap into their technology to allow connectivity.
The morning of March 15th, 2015 was a different Monday morning at Google.
In front of top mobile executives from around the world, Googleâs then product chief, Sundar Pichai, talking about one of Googleâs promising projects said, â[It] started about four years ago as an experimental idea. When you think about it, it sounds a bit crazy,”
“Today we are excited to announce most of our balloons stay up for as long as six months.â
The goal for commercial viability was to have them floating for three months, now they could last twice as long. Compared to the early days of the project where the balloons only lasted a few days, this was a huge accomplishment.
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Google’s parent company Alphabet said it would close down Loon; the moonshot project it launched in 2011. Loon sought to use high-flying balloons to provide internet access in places where conventional infrastructure for web connectivity was not feasible.
Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth said failure to bring down ‘costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business’ led to the project’s winding up.
What Is Loon?
Loon was born out of the dire need to take the internet to the ‘next billion’ users. The idea was to level the playing field for underserved communities by hooking them to the internet to catch up with the rest of the world.
A series of experts working on affordable internet access and other technology for development efforts spoke out against Loon, posts on Twitter that it “sucked in the air“From discussions about affordable access and derived from”more realistic approachesTowards connectivity.
Google parent Alphabet shuts down Loon, its internet radiant balloon project https://t.co/yPB31X8mWs
Just to be clear, I’m the kind of person who says I told you.
Through Twitter.
According to John Garrity, an independent advisor to public and private sector organizations working on digital inclusion, organizations working to connect disconnected people can find a better balance between investing in existing approaches and considering new technologies.