Alphabet, the Google parent company, is killing off its Loon project due to financial considerations.
Debuted in 2013, Project Loon uses a network of high-altitude helium balloons to provide Internet access to rural and remote areas across the world, and had been touted as a connectivity solution for Africa.
The technology was also ideal for disaster scenarios, to help restore connectivity, and had far-reaching possibilities for providing connectivity to remote areas on the African continent.
The company premiered its commercial deployment in Africa in July 2018, when it signed a commercial deal with Telkom Kenya as its first African telco. The companies agreed on a definitive agreement to pilot an innovative 4G/LTE access network service in Kenya.
Last year, it sealed another deal with Vodacom to use Loon’s balloon-powered Internet solution to expand the telco’s network in Mozambique.
In terms of the agreement, Loon would help Vodacom provide service to unserved and underserved parts of the country with a network of floating cellphone towers that operate 20km above Earth.
The collaboration was expected to significantly accelerate Vodacom’s 4G coverage to areas of Mozambique that had been challenging to service. The aim was to expand and push to the edge coverage to provide the same quality voice, data, SMS and M-Pesa services.
Loon technology was also used by US telecoms operators in 2017 to provide connectivity to more than 250 000 people in Puerto Rico after a hurricane hit the island.
Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth in a blog post published today announced the decision to shutter Alphabet’s famous project.
“While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business. Developing radical new technology is inherently risky, but that doesn’t make breaking this news any easier. Today, I’m sad to share that Loon will be winding down,” he writes.
Westgarth says he couldn’t be prouder of the Loon team and their achievements.
“Loon’s journey has been a series of ‘firsts’ as we’ve tackled and solved a multitude of problems we couldn’t have even imagined we’d face when Loon started. Working side-by-side with governments and global aviation and communications regulators to showcase and enable these new technologies, we found ways to safely fly a lighter-than-air vehicle for hundreds of days in the stratosphere to anywhere in the world.
“We built a system for quickly and reliably launching a vehicle the size of a tennis court, and we built a global supply chain for an entirely new technology and business. We also scaled up our communications equipment from technology that could have been made in a college dorm room (literally: WiFi routers inside Styrofoam beer coolers), to a communications system capable of delivering mobile Internet coverage over an 11 000 square kilometre area − 200x that of an average cell tower.”
Commenting on the development, Astro Teller, CEO of X and chairman of Loon’s board, says the project wouldn’t have been possible without a community of innovators and risk-takers who were passionate about connecting the unconnected.
According to Teller, although Loon is going away, its commitment to connectivity isn’t.
“Today, we’re pledging a fund of $10 million to support non-profits and businesses focused on connectivity, Internet, entrepreneurship and education in Kenya.
“We hope Loon is a stepping stone to future technologies and businesses that can fill in blank spots on the globe’s map of connectivity. To accelerate that, we’ll be exploring options to take some of Loon’s technology forward,” he wrote in a separate blog.
“We want to share what we’ve learned and help creative innovators find each other − whether they live amidst the telcos, mobile network operators, city and country governments, NGOs or technology companies.”
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