[ad_1] In between beaming internet to people in developing countries and sometimes passing for UFOs, Alphabet’s Loon balloons have been busy helping scientists study how our planet works. A team led by Stanford professor Aditi Sheshadri recently published a report on gravity waves, ripples created by gravity when it pushes down on air forced up into the Earth’s upper […]
Category: loon
Alphabet’s balloon-powered Loon rural internet comes to Mozambique
[ad_1] Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth noted that Vodacom is one of Africa’s largest carriers, providing service to tens of millions of people in multiple countries. “We view this as the first step to a larger partnership that will allow us to serve more of those users throughout Africa,” he said in a statement. So far, […]
Alphabet’s Loon, telecoms unite to boost high-altitude internet
[ad_1] The Alliance will push for governments to adopt high-altitude internet, of course, but it’ll also work on a cooperative environment with common specs and standards. The aim is ultimately to create a single “compelling message” to sell the concept, even if the individual companies end up competing with each other. This comes roughly 10 […]
Loon will bring balloon-powered internet to the Amazon rainforest
[ad_1] Working together with local infrastructure operator Internet Para Todos Perú (IpT), Loon will use its high-altitude balloons to provide internet access to parts of the Loreto Region of the Peruvian Amazon, where around 200,000 people live. According to the company, a quarter of people in this area lack 3G or better internet access, and […]
After Math: Never stop not watching
[ad_1] Even as the price of a Netflix subscription continues to creep steadily higher here in the States, the streaming service announced this week that it is rolling out a low cost plan for television fans in India. The only catch to the $3/month scheme is that you have to watch everything on your phone. […]
Alphabet’s internet balloons have spent a million hours in the stratosphere
[ad_1] The record comes in part through the way the balloons operate. Instead of fighting the wind, they use AI to change their altitude and ride currents to their destination. That leads to routes that can be long and winding, but don’t require massive amounts of energy. Loon even encourages its balloons to “stroll” so […]
Alphabet’s balloons broadcast LTE two days after Peruvian quake
[ad_1] This isn’t the first time Loon has provided connectivity following a disaster. It delivered internet to 100,000 people in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria struck in 2017. But in that case, it took Loon four weeks to get the balloons online. The difference in Peru is that Loon was already negotiating a commercial contract […]