Google’s parent company takes Internet to a new high
MENLO PARK (California): Google’s parent Alphabet Inc said that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the Internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria.
Two of the search giant’s “Project Loon” balloons are already over the country enabling texts, e-mails and basic web access to AT&T customers with handsets that use its 4G LTE network.
The balloons – called HBAL199 and HBAL237 – are more than 60,000 feet (18,000m) above land, according to FlightRadar24.com.
They navigate using an algorithm that puts them in the best position to deliver signal by rising and falling to ride wind currents. They are also solar-powered and only provide signal during the day.
Several more balloons are on their way from Nevada, and Alphabet has been authorised by the Federal Communications Commission to send up to 30 balloons to serve the hard-hit area, according to Libby Leahy, spokesman for Alphabet’s X, its division for futuristic technologies.
Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post that Project Loon is “still an experimental technology and we’re not quite sure how well it will work”, though it has been tested since last year in Peru following flooding there.
Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory of 3.4 million people since making landfall last month.
Gov Ricardo Rossello said on Friday that the death toll had risen to 49.
Less than a fifth of the island has electricity, half its cellphone towers are still not functioning, schools are closed and more than 4,000 are in shelters, according to a government website. — AP