A subsidiary of Google called Loon develops high-altitude autonomous balloons that provide internet connections to rural areas. Since almost half of the world’s population has no access to the internet, these developments are of great importance for connecting people worldwide.
This February, just before the COVID-19 lockdown, I was traveling in Peru enjoying the beautiful landscape and fascinating history. I did a 4 day hike towards the Machu Picchu and was amazed by the astounding scenery of the Andes. Its high and steep mountain range is a challenge for hikers, but a large barrier for transportation to get from the sea to the Amazon rainforest. Hundreds of years ago, the Incas where able to build roads that connected rural places from Peru to Chile and even Argentina. This impressive road network increased the connectivity by using runners.
Currently, its country is facing different connectivity issues. Its country is divided by its mountain range, deserts and rivers, causing several areas being ignored by internet providers. In 2016, 80% of Peruvian villages had no access to the Internet, whereas today only 57% of the people in Peru use the internet. To create rural connectivity, Loon launched a balloon that provides wireless internet connection to the people on the ground by partnering up with local mobile network providers. It is still in the test phase, but the plans are to have the balloon permanently installed. In 2019, they have already used temporarily balloons to provide internet connection to the households that were damaged by an earthquake in Peru. These balloons are solar powered, flying at an altitude of 20 kilometres in the air and have the size of a tennis field.
Loon is now also testing in Kenia to provide unserved rural areas with internet connectivity. Areas that have never been connected before, have no access to the world wide web. In addition, such places are hard to reach by transportation, so if the future would allow drones to fly on the network of these balloons, rural areas would be even more accessible than ever before.
I think this development of connectivity is of great value to developing countries, but especially to the powerful multinational Google and others like Facebook. Currently, only 59% of the total world population are using the internet. Look at the opportunities Google has for the future, if it starts to offer more and more areas internet connection. It is creating the networking effects itself. More users=more value.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/technology/google-drones-internet-balloons.html
https://connectivity.fb.com/rural-access/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/209114/peru-internet-penetration/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/617136/digital-population-worldwide/
Hi Bram,
I really liked your informative post about the loon project and the future of network connectivity. The only concern I have with it is that these kinds of projects will only increase the power of these companies by them becoming the sole internet provider of these emerging users. Therefore, getting al the data from these users and potentially gathering it for their personal gain. Thus effectively owning the internet usage of these new unknowing users which have no idea how much influence this can have on their future digital life.
Let me know what you think. Thanks again for this informative piece and speak soon.