Page 17 - Astro Teller News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Investors and analysts say they're encouraged by Alphabet's decision to fold Loon, and say it could be a sign of more changes ahead.

Alphabet, parent company of Google, is shutting down Loon, its subsidiary dedicated to providing broadband from balloons in the stratosphere. Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth announced the news in a Medium blog post on Jan. 22.  “Loon has been chasing the hardest problem of all in connectivity — the last billion users:

Hi, everybody. Do you detect something missing? Like that unease in your gut that everything has gone to hell? Wonder why that is. Oh, and for those of you who are reading this newsletter on WIRED’s website, here’s some news. First, we’re sending this out early because we have a scoop timed to tonight. And now for some bad news: Aside from an occasional episode shared out of the goodness of my heart, Plaintext will hereafter be available only for subscribers. Don’t look shocked—I’ve been warning you about this for a year! The good news is that you can subscribe...

January 22nd, 2021 Loon In 2013 Google shocked us by announcing Project Loon, an effort to distribute wireless connections from balloons floating 20km above the Earth. Now, as first reported by Wired, Google’s parent company Alphabet is pulling the plug on it, apparently because it couldn’t make the whole thing commercially viable. Loon CEO Alistair Westgarth writes in a blog post that “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.” In 2018, Loon (along with the Wing del...

Image sourced from MIT Technology Review Alphabet is shutting down its balloon-powered mobile Internet service, Loon. The project’s main objective was to bring abundant, affordable Internet access to unconnected communities around the world. “When we unveiled Loon in June 2013, we meant everything in its name. It was a way-out-there and risky venture,” says Astro Teller, X lead. “Sadly, despite the team’s groundbreaking technical achievements over the last 9 years — doing many things previously thought impossible — the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and risk...