Project Loon: Kenya, the Internet from the stratosphere
This is a first time under many points of view: Loon's first non-emergency use to bring large-scale connectivity, the first balloon-enabled internet application in Africa and the first commercial development worldwide
Word by Alastair Westgarth, CEO by Loon, which thus celebrates the partnership with Telkom Kenya and the start-up of the network (initially announced in April) which will now cover a large part of the Kenyan territory, bringing the Internet where the network could not reach in any way until today.
Loon: Internet in Kenya
50 thousand sq km of cop opening between the territories of Iten, Eldoret, Baringo, Nakuru, Kakamega, Kisumu, Kisii, Bomet, Kericho and Narok: 35 balloons capable of constantly flying in the stratosphere, and moving in the air thanks to machine learning, will bring a network that it reaches 4,74Mbps in uplink and a speed of 18,9Mbps in reception, with a latency of just 19 milliseconds. Let's face it: a lot, a lot, for an area where previously tools like online browsing, videos on YouTube, messages on WhatsApp, emails or video calls could not arrive. It is not just the Web: it is an incredible opportunity to reduce spaces where travel is problematic and increase the connection between people where isolation between communities is a limiting and almost mandatory condition.The balloons are equipped with a photovoltaic surface which powers the apparatus, a battery on-board to increase the autonomy and a surface able to withstand the extreme temperatures in the altitude (up to -90°). The flight is about 20 km away from the earth , so much above routes, taking advantage of the current to be able to distribute the signal throughout the territory with a real mesh network between balls: the connection comes from the ground, is distributed to the equipment in the flight and back on the ground, in order to multiply the coverage.
In this video here is the presentation of the project issued by the Loon in the occasion of the announcement:
in cases Where an emergency requires it, the Loon will be ready to launch in a matter of a few hours. If the need so required, you can activate a network in times much shorter than a physical installation of the poles, and antennas. Loon emphasizes this step as an essential one at that, was a chimera, since today is a solid commercial reality able to get anywhere in the world. A new way of doing the Network, in short, able to create synergies with terrestrial networks.
Now the Web can really get anywhere. Today the world is smaller , even if until now all this seemed, in fact, a chimera.
Source: Loon
