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Alphabet to Deploy Loon Internet Balloons in Kenya's Skies in 2019

posted by martyb on Monday July 23 2018, @12:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the successful-rollout-is-still-up-in-the-air dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Alphabet's Loon project said Thursday that its balloons will bring internet to remote parts of Kenya next year.

This'll be the project's first deal in Africa, Reuters reports, and it'll see Loon working with Telkom Kenya to get high-speed internet to the East African country's rural and suburban populations.

Loon became its own company only last week -- having started in 2016 as a project at X, Google parent Alphabet's research-and-development facility. It uses high-flying balloons powered by on-board solar panels as Wi-Fi carriers to deliver signals from above.

The balloons float at 60,000 feet (20 km) above sea level -- high over air traffic, wildlife and weather events.

[...] Last year, Alphabet teamed with AT&T to bring limited internet access to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico.

-- submitted from IRC

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  • (Score: 1) by Captival on Monday July 23 2018, @02:13AM (3 children)

    by Captival (6866) on Monday July 23 2018, @02:13AM (#711011)

    Yeah. I'm sure a bunch of highly paid engineers and designers working on a floating object never thought "Hmmm. Maybe we should consider that weather exists."

  • (Score: 2) by legont on Monday July 23 2018, @02:23AM

    by legont (4179) on Monday July 23 2018, @02:23AM (#711015)

    Based on "flying car" adventure your irony may be the simple truth.

    Perhaps the development goes along these lines:

    Balloons. Yes Sir. Flying cars. Sir, yes Sir.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @03:36AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @03:36AM (#711047)

    Sort of like how a bunch of highly paid engineers and designers never thought "windows with corners could cause stress concentrations" ?

    /
    /

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Comet#Accidents_and_incidents [wikipedia.org]

    You have WAY too much faith in engineers and designers, son. These people fuck up all the time. It is part of the process.

    If you were more educated on the subject, you'd be aware of this.

    • (Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday July 23 2018, @11:11AM

      by PiMuNu (3823) on Monday July 23 2018, @11:11AM (#711160)

      Yeah but AC, you have way too much faith in random guys on the internet. Sure engineers screw up but without evidence for that, it's not really a great idea to assume incompetence.