Google scraps Internet balloon project

Google scraps Internet balloon project
© Belga

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has halted its Loon project, launched in 2011 to provide Internet access in rural areas using balloons.

The project, an initiative of Google’s innovation lab, Division X, was tested in recent years in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, New Zealand and Peru.

“While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business,” Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth explained.

Experts said the problem was also that inhabitants of rural zones often lack the means to gain access to the internet.

Last year, Alphabet halted another project, Makani, that sought to generate wind energy using gigantic kites.

The Brussels Times


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