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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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 23 2018, @03:32AM
"I'd like to know where the money is flowing."
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You need to reset your thinking mode to a more sinister setting.
The blimps will facilitate things which are in the interest of "deep state" actors.
Africa is one of the world's prime repositories of rare earths and other things which are
of strategic importance to those in power in the countries we call "superpowers".
The notion that these blimps will be put up so the average person can access the web is
hilariously naive. Think more along the lines of NSA surveillance and comms and you will
be much closer to the right track.