Google’s cellular balloons face commercial test

There is no longer any doubt that high-altitude balloons can be used to provide cellular service to remote locations or places reeling from natural disaster.

The question for Loon — an internet-providing balloon service owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company — is whether that technology is commercially viable.

To answer that question, the company will need to complete its first commercial trial, which is scheduled to begin this month when Loon kicks off a partnership with Telekom Kenya, the African nation’s thirdlargest carrier, according to Reuters. The wire service reported that the balloons will give “mountain villagers” the opportunity to purchase 4G service at “market-rate prices.”

Loon did not respond to a request for comment about the new initiative.

Started in 2013, Loon set a goal to create high-altitude, solar-powered balloons that provide Wi-fi connectivity to remote locations in developing markets. The effort is an ambitious one. The company’s balloons take the most essential components of a cell tower — redesigned for lightness and durability — and hoists them more than 12 miles above the earth’s surface to the edge of space.

But the sophisticated technology is not without limitations. Though multiple balloons can supply 4G to thousands of devices over an area about as large as Connecticut, the service can be interrupted by strong winds or a lack of sunshine, Reuters reported.

Despite those limitations, the 200-person company has been deploying its technology in remote regions for years, most recently in Peru.

After a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck remote parts of Peru’s Amazon region in May, Loon dispatched a group of balloons to the impacted area, the company’s CEO, Alastair Westgarth, said in a statement at the time. About 48 hours after the disaster struck, the balloons were providing people on the ground with wireless broadband communication.

But, like the company’s other responses, such as after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the remarkably rapid deployment to Peru was not for commercial gain.