Google's Broadband Balloons Bring Coverage to Sri Lanka -

In June of 2013 Google unveiled Google Loon, the latest in a long line of similar projects that will use balloons to deliver broadband and wireless services to under-served or emergency prone areas. Project Loon will use balloons 49 feet wide stationed 12 miles above the planet, well above the range of commercial aircraft. Ground base stations sixty miles apart communicate with solar-powered radio transmitters affixed to the balloons, and Google steers the balloons using wind as they ride the 40th parallel.

Now Sri Lanka appears to be one of the first countries to strike a deal for full Google Loon coverage.

Posting to Facebook and Twitter, Sri Lankan Deputy Economic Policy Minister Harsha de Silva said that Google Loon balloons will soon bring even wireless coverage to the entire country in a deal hashed out this week.

"Service providers will enter in to agreements with "floating cell towers" that will be shared bringing down transmission costs leading to further reductions in cost of service provision," de Silva said.

Google has previously made it clear the company hoped to work with existing telcos to use Loon to help bolster existing connectivity in hard-to-reach areas, or as a supplemental offering during natural disasters or major events.


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