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Google, the high tech giant best known for its search engine, just announced that it has signed a contract to deliver high speed internet access to an entire country — Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island nation approximately 900 miles off the coast of India.
We’re always optimists here at CheapInternet.com and from our point of view, and probably from Google’s, this is just the first of many countries to ink a deal for Loon, Google’s revolutionary balloon-based internet delivery system. And to extend our optimistic point of view, if other countries find the technology to be satisfactory, it won’t be long until Google Loon balloons are delivering similar high-speed internet access right here in the United States.
There are those who have poked fun at the concept of delivering something as high tech as high speed internet access via something as low tech as balloons. But the naysayers may be forced to eat their words now that Sri Lanka has become the first country in its region to offer complete national coverage.
This is not the first time Sri Lanka’s been first in the region’s technological development. In 1989 it was the first South Asian nation to introduce mobile phones. In 2004 it was the first nation to roll a 3G network. And in 2013 it became the first nation in the region to deploy a 4G network. The nation’s leaders seem to be very excited about this latest innovation.
“The entire Sri Lankan island – every village from (southern) Dondra to (northern) Point Pedro – will be covered with affordable high speed Internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology,” said Mangala Samaraweera, Foreign Minister and IT Minister.
This undoubtedly comes as very good news to Sri Lanka’s 20 million people. To emphasize the importance of the Google Loon project, it should be noted that the country currently enjoys only 2.8 million mobile internet connections and 606,000 fixed line internet subscribers. The nation’s leaders expect Google Loon to dramatically increase those numbers.
Project Loon was announced in 2013 and hopes to deliver internet access to remote or rural areas around the world by launching thousands of balloons laden with the equipment necessary to deliver that access.
Google won’t be delivering access itself. Instead, it will provide the necessary signals to local service providers who will, in turn, make the service available to local residents. Thanks to the low-cost of Google’s balloon technology, it is expected that local service providers will be able to reduce their costs enough to make internet access affordable in areas where it had heretofore been unaffordable.
“Service providers will be able to access higher speeds and improve the quality of their existing service once the balloon project is up and running,” Muhunthan Canagey, leader of Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology Agency, said. He added that Google expects to position its final balloon configuration by March 2016.
Here’s where it starts to sound like science fiction: The balloons will be put in stationary positions in the stratosphere (which generally lies in a band about 10-50 miles above the earth).
That’s about twice as high as commercial airliners fly and high enough that the balloons will barely be perceptible from the ground. Each balloon is expected to stay in position and send internet signals for approximately 100 days.
While this is certainly excellent news for 20 million Sri Lankans, we hope it will also be a good sign for tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford expensive internet service or live in areas where internet access is not available.
Sri Lanka today, the United States tomorrow.
We’re always optimists here at CheapInternet.com and from our point of view, and probably from Google’s, this is just the first of many countries to ink a deal for Loon, Google’s revolutionary balloon-based internet delivery system. And to extend our optimistic point of view, if other countries find the technology to be satisfactory, it won’t be long until Google Loon balloons are delivering similar high-speed internet access right here in the United States.
There are those who have poked fun at the concept of delivering something as high tech as high speed internet access via something as low tech as balloons. But the naysayers may be forced to eat their words now that Sri Lanka has become the first country in its region to offer complete national coverage.
This is not the first time Sri Lanka’s been first in the region’s technological development. In 1989 it was the first South Asian nation to introduce mobile phones. In 2004 it was the first nation to roll a 3G network. And in 2013 it became the first nation in the region to deploy a 4G network. The nation’s leaders seem to be very excited about this latest innovation.
“The entire Sri Lankan island – every village from (southern) Dondra to (northern) Point Pedro – will be covered with affordable high speed Internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology,” said Mangala Samaraweera, Foreign Minister and IT Minister.
This undoubtedly comes as very good news to Sri Lanka’s 20 million people. To emphasize the importance of the Google Loon project, it should be noted that the country currently enjoys only 2.8 million mobile internet connections and 606,000 fixed line internet subscribers. The nation’s leaders expect Google Loon to dramatically increase those numbers.
Project Loon was announced in 2013 and hopes to deliver internet access to remote or rural areas around the world by launching thousands of balloons laden with the equipment necessary to deliver that access.
Google won’t be delivering access itself. Instead, it will provide the necessary signals to local service providers who will, in turn, make the service available to local residents. Thanks to the low-cost of Google’s balloon technology, it is expected that local service providers will be able to reduce their costs enough to make internet access affordable in areas where it had heretofore been unaffordable.
“Service providers will be able to access higher speeds and improve the quality of their existing service once the balloon project is up and running,” Muhunthan Canagey, leader of Sri Lanka’s Information and Communication Technology Agency, said. He added that Google expects to position its final balloon configuration by March 2016.
Here’s where it starts to sound like science fiction: The balloons will be put in stationary positions in the stratosphere (which generally lies in a band about 10-50 miles above the earth).
That’s about twice as high as commercial airliners fly and high enough that the balloons will barely be perceptible from the ground. Each balloon is expected to stay in position and send internet signals for approximately 100 days.
While this is certainly excellent news for 20 million Sri Lankans, we hope it will also be a good sign for tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford expensive internet service or live in areas where internet access is not available.
Sri Lanka today, the United States tomorrow.
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