PROJECT LOON

 

What is Loon?

• Loons are high altitude balloons that provide internet to remote areas.
• It is the third layer of connectivity ecosystem to help places with minimum reach receives connectivity with the rest of the world.
• These balloons that reach the stratosphere and provide internet connections to regions that were once thought unservable.

About Loon

• These are manufactured by Alphabet, Google's parent company.
• These balloons reach up to 20 km above the Earth into the stratosphere

•  The balloons are made from sheets of polyethene and are the size of tennis courts.
• The balloons are powered by solar panels and are controlled by software on the ground.
• The attachments include solar panels, antennas and various other electronics.
• The balloons beam internet down to the earth to provide connectivity to remotest of areas.
• It delivers 4G LTE and 5G connectivity to the areas it is assigned to and is capable of covering 200 times more areas than land cell towers.
• No electricity is used to transmit internet services across our globe!
• As of now, Google tested and launched this wonderful interest facility in countries like Sri Lanka, USA, Brazil, New Zealand and now in India too.
• Project loon has come out with an amazing internet transmission speed with 2.6 GHz band in broadband facility in every rural area.
• Project loon provides internet connection to approximately a diameter of 40 kms in ground areas.
• LTE enabled project loon internet can be used even in your mobile phones.

• Google’s balloons are designed light weighted with elastic materials to make them fly on heights. It’s floating and direction is based on the wind movement.

 

Do you know? Kenya has already received the first commercial deployment of Loon this year. It would initially provide a 4G LTE network connection spread across 31,000-square-mile of central and western Kenya, including Nairobi. Soon, Loon would begin its journey in the Amazon with the collaborative efforts of Telefónica. The balloons have previously been used only in emergency situations. These were used successfully in Puerto Rico in 2017 after Hurricane Maria destroyed all the land cell towers. By allowing phone companies to extend their coverage wherever needed, Loons would be able to offer countries with a cheaper option than laying cables or building cell towers. This could be effective in third world countries like Africa, where only 28 per cent of the continent’s 1.3 billion people were registered to be using the internet in 2019.

Significance

• In the current era of World Wide Web, internet covers only one third of the whole world population.
• Still over 60% of the entire population is yet to enjoy internet facilities. Google’s Project loon is true solution to this!
• The technology used for connectivity is wireless networks known as LTG (4G). Hence, it can cover almost all rural areas within our globe. This enables people with uninterrupted internet services at a fast speed!
• Google’s balloon internet is a good source of Wi-Fi internet facilities. This can be used by anyone to get a Wi-Fi facility, either corporate or individuals.
• Loon’s solution makes it possible for mobile network operators to cover these populations, unlocking new customers and business opportunities.