Alphabet to Shut down Loon, its Balloon Based Internet Access Project

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Alphabet to Shut down Loon, its Balloon Based Internet Access Project

By CircleID Reporter
January 26, 2021, 8:35 pm PST Views: 15,102 Add Comment

Despite several groundbreaking technical achievements over the past nine years, Google’s parent company Alphabet has decided to end the Loon project. The company said the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped.

While Loon remained an experimental project for many years, last year it started to move into more practical operations. In July 2020, Loon announced it had begun providing commercial service in parts of Kenya, using about 35 balloons to offer service over a region of nearly 50,000 square kilometers.

Astro Teller, head of X, the advanced projects or “moonshot factory” division of Alphabet, says some of Loon’s technology will live on in its other projects such as Taara. “This team is currently working with partners in Sub-Saharan Africa to bring affordable, high-speed internet to unconnected and under-connected communities starting in Kenya.”

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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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