Project Loon is still testing its technology, so there is still no estimate of when it will start selling the Internet service to households and businesses within range of the balloons. Over the next few years, we’re hoping that Loon will help put high-speed LTE Internet connections within reach of more than 100 million Indonesians, giving them access to the limitless educational, cultural, and economic opportunities of the Internet.
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As The Wall Street Journal notes, the country is made up of more than 17,000 islands loaded with rugged terrain that makes installing traditional cell towers and laying fiber optic cable quite the challenge.
Google’s Project Loon has big plans for 2016, including its first round-the-world coverage, Endgadget reports. The project selected Indonesia for test launch because two-thirds of the world’s fourth most populated country is devoid of Internet access.
“[We need] about 300 balloons or so to make a continuous string around the world”, he explained.
The Internet access will be sold through wireless service providers in Indonesia, where there the number of mobile phones – about 319 million – outnumber people.
Project Loon uses solar powered balloons at an altitude of 5000 metres to deliver the Internet over radio signals to ground-based antennas.
“So our goal for these balloon flights is to stay aloft for about 100 days or three laps around the globe”, Project Loon Manager Pam Desrochers said. In June, Google signed a memorandum of understanding with Sri Lanka’s government, calling it an important step but cautioning it was still early in the process. Alphabet’s Project Loon would make it possible for its balloons to take a signal produced from one of the three Indonesian telecommunications companies it partners with and make it available for more users.
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Begun in 2013, Project Loon plans to use a network of high-altitude balloons that float at the edge of space and allow people in remote or rural areas to get Internet. The company is also trialling the system with Telstra in Australia and Telefonica in Latin America, with the aim of delivering Internet access to areas where it might not otherwise be economically viable, such as in sparsely populated regions.
