Air network
Technology | Stratospheric balloons to provide phone service for Kenya
by Michael Cochrane
Posted 1/31/19, 12:39 am
In 2011, using a simple weather balloon and some basic, off-the-shelf radio equipment, engineers at Alphabet’s research and development subsidiary, X, tried to show that balloons could provide internet and telecommunications coverage. By 2017 the technology of X’s Project Loon, as it was known, was mature enough to provide emergency internet service for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico.