Project Loon Heading to Carrier Testing

Google’s balloon-powered high-speed internet service known as “Project Loon” has started testing in Sri Lanka ahead of a planned joint venture with the government.

Each balloon is expected to operate for 180 days before it is recycled or decommissioned, Sri Lankan officials participating in the project told The Guardian.

Teller said his team refers to their base as “The Moonshot Factory” because their goal is to blend audacious ideas with the realities of getting them to market. The Sri Lankan government announced last summer it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Google, which is now under the parent company Alphabet.

The company is hoping to partner with local telecom companies to use the balloons, which move with the wind after being positioned by software algorithms, to create a large-scale communications network that could be used to provide Internet access in parts of the world where traditional fiber optic networks and wireless coverage can be spotty.

A control center will also be established to help guide each balloon to an area to ensure Google’s fleet is providing the best coverage where the Internet is needed.

The firm will check this know-how in Indonesia and Sri Lanka to see the way it works delivering actual web service to shoppers.

Project Loon balloons will travel about 20 km above the earth’s surface, in comparison a normal passenger plan travel at at altitude of about 10 km. However, the country will receive 25% stake in the project in exchange for spectrum allocated to the project.

The signals can then hop forward, from one balloon to the next, along a backbone of up to five balloons.

The helium-filled balloons fly in the stratosphere, around twice as high as a commercial airliner, carrying a small box decked out with solar panels which carry the craft’s electronics.

Service providers will be able to access higher speeds and improve the quality of their existing service once the balloon project is up and running.

The benefits will also extend to the costs, where users will receive fasters speeds at lower rates.

However, not to forget Sri Lanka was the first country to offer mobile phones in South Asia in 1989. The country has about 3.3 million mobile data connections and 630,000 wired Internet subscribers.

It was also the first in the region to unveil a 4G network two years ago.