Alphabet’s Loon Balloons Can Now Cover 1000km of Internet Connectivity via 1 Access Point

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Alphabet’s Loon Balloons Can Now Cover 1000km of Internet Connectivity via 1 Access Point

By CircleID Reporter
September 13, 2018, 6:54 pm PDT Views: 11,065 Comments: 1

Loon, formerly a Google X project and now an independent Alphabet company, reveals that it successfully transmitted data over a 1000 kilometers (621 miles) via a network of 7 balloons. This new milestone was achieved using a new custom antenna that stretched a 100km connection between two balloons ten times further across seven balloons. Why does this matter? Salvatore Candido, Head of Engineering at Loon, explains: “Even with our balloons’ expanded coverage area?—?which is 20 to 30 times greater than a traditional ground-based system?—?there are people who live outside the reach of one of our balloons operating adjacent to a backhaul connection on the ground. If we can extend our reach by passing that connection across a network of balloons, like a cosmic soccer team advancing the ball through the sky, we can cover far more people.”

By CircleID Reporter — CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.
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Does one need an account for Loon? Bob Frankston – Sep 24, 2018 4:33 PM

Can I simply connect to loon or is there a login/registration process?

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