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Communications Google The Internet

Alphabet's Loon Launches Its Balloon-Powered Kenyan Internet Service (techcrunch.com) 32

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
Alphabet's Loon has officially begun operating its commercial internet service in Kenya. This is the first large-scale commercial offering that makes use of Loon's high-altitude balloons, which essentially work as cell service towers that drift on currents in the Earth's upper atmosphere. From a report: Loon's Kenyan service is offered in partnership with local telecom provider Telkom Kenya, and provides cellular service through their network to an area covering roughly 50,000 square kilometres (31,000 square miles) that normally hasn't had reliable service due to the difficulty of setting up ground infrastructure in the mountainous terrain. Loon has been working towards deploying its first commercial service deployment in Kenya since it announced the signed deal in 2019, but the company says that the mission has taken on even greater significance and importance since the onset of COVID-19, which has meant that reliable connectivity, especially in light of the restrictions upon travel that the epidemic has placed, making the ability to remotely contact doctors, family members and others all the more important.
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Alphabet's Loon Launches Its Balloon-Powered Kenyan Internet Service More

Alphabet's Loon Launches Its Balloon-Powered Kenyan Internet Service

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  • provides cellular service through their network to an area covering roughly 50,000 square kilometres

    That works there because there's like 10 people who have a cellphone in that area. Try that over SF and you'll be blocking the sun with balloons to provide service to everybody.

    • Said someone who has clearly never been to Kenya, or really any where

    • Maybe we're talking about a less densely populated area, but these are countries that skipped landlines and went straight to cellular. If there's one thing everyone has in poor / sparse countries, it's a cell phone.

    • You will be surprised on the number of cell phones are being used in these mostly rural countries.

      Primarily it is the fact that Cellphones require less infrastructure than Internet Cables, or even old LAN Line cables.
      Also it seems the idea that Cellphones are still a device for the ultra wealthy. While they are Expensive in the US. They are cheaper ones you can get that are rather functional for a fraction of the cost. Even with smart phones, we don't need $1,000 Smart phone with 4k OLED displays, and cam

      • It's almost the opposite, in fact. The only computing/communications device a lot of poorer/developing nations people have is a cell phone, as it requires no fixed network infrastructure or persistent local data storage, as everything's backed up in the cloud. If you're homeless or nomadic, would you try to pull out a heavy, stealable, non-backed-up laptop anytime you need to use the internet?

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "That works there because there's like 10 people who have a cellphone in that area. "

      50.000m2 is a tenth of the country with 48 Million total so it should be 4-5 Million instead of just 10.

    • Lemme guess, you're one of those guys that think Kenyans hunt lions for clothing, right?

  • I've never been to Kenya, but have been to a few other nations. I am surprised ever time at the strage mix between impoverished communities and modern 21st century African nation's can be. Even within nation's. Take Zimbabwe. Their whole economy is cashless and has been for years. Almost all consumer payments are done via cellphone transactions. Sure they don't have running water or sewage treatment, but they have a cashless economy.
    • Some of it is just a matter of leapfrogging over the intermediary technology stages that the rest of the world has had to go through, and in some cases may still be moored to, and implementing the end result that's a better solution or feasible for them to implement. This is especially the case with computing where desktops and landlines have largely been skipped over in favor of smart devices and cellular networks. Less expensive to implement and provide most of the benefits.

      Zimbabwe being cashless is h

  • Ready... aim... FIRE!

    Unable to contact server, please check your internet connection.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by q4Fry ( 1322209 )

      I'm glad you pointed it out! Air-based internet access is so much more vulnerable to missiles than ground-based towers. They need to anchor those access points to the ground to keep them safe from missiles.

  • so.... when can we expect the first reports of people hacking these and either flying them as the biggest remote-controlled drones ever... OR... hacking the hardware on board, sending them back up... and giving people *free telephone calls*? Harald Welte's work on OpenBTS provides free phone calls by running an old TI Calypso chipset $10 GSM phone up a mast with USB power, so why not?

  • It's true! (Score:3)

    by the_skywise ( 189793 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @11:40AM (#60271328)

    I got an email from somebody in Kenya saying I had stock options granted to me in this company but I needed to secure them by wiring them some money or buying iTunes cards in their name!

    I gave 'em a dollar.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @12:06PM (#60271388)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • No longer will African princes be limited to Nigeria to inform us about great business opportunities.

  • "Here comes zee network, only in KENya..."

    I was going to link to that classic, funny Internet animation, but after looking it up, they removed 2 funny jokes from the short. I assume it was out of some sort of political correctness. Man, I'm sick of it already.
  • First badly-chosen name: Alphabet.

    2nd badly-chosen name: Loon.

    Sometimes Google's management is Loony [lexico.com].
    • Alphabet's Loon: refers to each Alphabet manager.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      It's an especially bad name because loons are terrible fliers. They're incredible swimmers and can stay underwater for a really long time, but have to run across the surface for a long way to get into the air and then they're slow, ponderous fliers at best. One of the funniest things you'll ever see is a loon landing on a frozen snowless lake, they belly-flop and slide uncontrollably for a ridiculous distance. Saw one plow into a flock of geese, who then proceeded to beat the crap out of the poor thing b

    • Wow -- lots of them around with some very interesting flight paths. I'd assume they are free floating mostly subject to prevailing winds; however, there flight paths don't seem to reflect what I naively think the wind at altitude might be doing.

  • 50,000 square kilometres is 19,305 square miles, not 31,000.

    Alternatively, 31,000 square miles is 80,290 square kilometres.

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