Google’s internet balloons will provide connectivity to all of Sri Lanka

Posting to Facebook and Twitter, Sri Lankan Deputy Economic Policy Minister Harsha de Silva said that Google Loon balloons will soon bring even wireless coverage to the entire country in a deal hashed out this week.

Foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera said officials signed an agreement with Google in the capital Colombo to launch the helium-filled, high-tech balloons above the Indian Ocean island in coming months. Now Sri Lanka appears to be one of the first countries to strike a deal for full Google Loon coverage.

Project Loon is a research and development project being developed by Google with the mission of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas. Once that happens, local internet service providers will be able to buy access to the Loon network, through which they can then connect their subscribers.

With the instant approval of the president, an agreement between the state-owned Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and Google was signed at the prime minister’s house in Colombo on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, Google Vice President and Project Leader on GoogleX Project Loon, Mike Cassidy said Sri Lanka is the first country in the world to have Internet access covering the whole country with the government support. “We can also expect prices to come down”, he added.

The balloons, once in the stratosphere, will be twice as high as commercial airliners and barely visible to the naked eye, Google has said. India Times points out that Sri Lanka became the first South Asian nation to release mobile phones in 1989, as well as the first to establish a 3G network in 2004.