Google parent Alphabet cancels Loon project to deliver internet by hot air balloon
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Google LLC’s parent company Alphabet Inc. said today that it’s giving up on the idea of using high-altitude hot air balloons to deliver internet connectivity to the world’s remotest regions.
Alphabet confirmed in a blog post that it’s winding down its nine-year-old Loon project and a two-and-a-half-year-old spinoff company because it can’t find a sustainable business model or willing partners. Loon was originally spun out of Alphabet’s “X” business unit, which is distinct from Google and home to most of its experimental projects.
Alphabet Is Winding Down Loon Internet Balloon Project
A small team will stay on to wrap up Loon s pilot service in Kenya. By Stephanie Mlot
(Photo via Alphabet Inc.)
Alphabet subsidiary Loon, which used high-altitude balloons to create an aerial wireless network, is officially deflated. CEO Alastair Westgarth broke the news in a Friday blog post, revealing that Project Loon will be winding down.
What began in 2011 as a research and development project at Google X has grown into a separate company, working to provide internet access to rural and remote areas across the world. We talk a lot about connecting the
What you need to know
Alphabet has announced that it is shutting down Loon, a project it started nine years back to beam high-speed internet to remote areas using floating balloons.
Loon will be helping its employees find other roles within various Alphabet companies over the coming months.
It has also pledged a $10 million fund to boost connectivity in Kenya.
Google parent Alphabet has decided to shut down Loon, which started as an experimental project in 2013 with an aim to beam down high-speed internet access from floating balloons (via
TechCrunch). In 2018, Loon became an independent company under Alphabet, along with Wing.
“While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business,” Westgarth explained.
“Sadly, despite the team’s groundbreaking technical achievements over the last 9 years doing many things previously thought impossible, like precisely navigating balloons in the stratosphere, creating a mesh network in the sky, or developing balloons that can withstand the harsh conditions of the stratosphere for more than a year the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped. So we’ve made the difficult decision to close down Loon,” Teller wrote.