One of Alphabet’s many subsidiaries recently launched a new project titled ‘Loon’, internet balloons developed under parent company Alphabet’s experimental division, X in Kenya. The company’s floating fleet of tech will ride the wind high above parts of the African country, launching 35 balloons in recent months in preparation for Tuesday’s start.
The balloons, which hover about 12 miles up in the stratosphere — well above commercial airplanes — will initially provide a 4G LTE network connection to a nearly 31,000-square-mile area across central and western Kenya, including the capital, Nairobi, NY Times Reports. Alphabet will be collaborating with Telkom Kenya, the East African nation’s third-largest carrier to bring internet service to regions around Kenya.
We will work very hard with Loon, to deliver the first commercial mobile service, as quickly as possible, using Loon’s balloon-powered Internet in Africa.
said Aldo Mareuse, chief executive of Telkom.
According to The Verge, Telkom says that it achieved a downlink speed of 18.9Mbps back in June, along with an uplink speed of 4.74Mbps and a latency of 19ms, and that it’s tested a range of services — including email, voice and video calls, web browsing, WhatsApp, and YouTube viewing — on its service.
Loon’s balloons (or “flight vehicles” as it calls them) hover at a height of roughly 20 km, analyzing the weather to ride around on stratospheric winds. Individual balloons can alternate between providing internet connectivity directly and acting as a link in the mesh network. The New York Times notes that they stay up in the air for over 100 days before coming back down to earth. The balloons, made from sheets of polyethylene, are the size of tennis courts. They are powered by solar panels and controlled by software on the ground.
Kenya is an ideal place for us to begin this new era of stratospheric communications. The country has been incredibly innovative about finding new ways to connect unconnected populations. As a new, innovative technology, this is a great fit.
Alastair Westgarth, Loon’s chief executive, said in an interview conducted by email.
