Just when we celebrated the commercial rollout of Alphabet’s Loon internet project in Kenya, the company announced that it was shutting down the project because it was taking too long to become commercially viable and it was riskier than the team had hoped.
Project Loon was first muted in May 2013 and unveiled in 2013 by Google’s parent body to provide access to internet in far flung areas in Sub-Saharan and Asian countries using air balloons or blimps.
According to Loon CEO, Alastair Westgarth in a blog post,
“We talk a lot about connecting the next billion users, but the reality is Loon has been chasing the hardest problem of all in connectivity — the last billion users: The communities in areas too difficult or remote to reach, or the areas where delivering service with existing technologies is just too expensive for everyday people. 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. Developing radical new technology is inherently risky, but that doesn’t make breaking this news any easier. Today, I’m sad to share that Loon will be winding down.”
Loon partnered with Telkom Kenya three years ago in its first commercial deal. In March last year, the Kenyan government gave formal approval for Loon’s balloons to operate in the stratosphere above the country. The project was supposed to provide expanded 4G coverage to Kenyans in rural areas. Loon’s high altitude balloons were supposed to initially cover a region spanning 50,000 sq. kms.
Talking about the achievements of the Loon team, Alastair said, “I couldn’t be prouder of the Loon team and their achievements. Loon’s journey has been a series of “firsts” as we’ve tackled and solved a multitude of problems we couldn’t have even imagined we’d face when Loon started.”
Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots X, said that over the next few months, most of the Loon team would be moving on. The management is working to take care of employees and hope to help many find alternative roles at X, Google and Alphabet. A small group of the Loon team will stay to ensure Loon’s operations are wrapped up smoothly and safely — this includes winding down Loon’s pilot service in Kenya.
Alphabet is pledging a fund of $10 million to support nonprofits and businesses focussed on connectivity, Internet, entrepreneurship and education in Kenya to show its commitment to internet connectivity in the country.
Astro also added that “We hope that Loon is a stepping stone to future technologies and businesses that can fill in blank spots on the globe’s map of connectivity. To accelerate that, we’ll be exploring options to take some of Loon’s technology forward. We want to share what we’ve learned and help creative innovators find each other — whether they live amidst the telcos, mobile network operators, city and country governments, NGOs or technology companies.”
“Some of Loon’s technology — like the high bandwidth (20Gbps+) optical communication links that were first used to beam a connection between balloons bopping in the stratosphere — already lives on in Project Taara. This team is currently working with partners in Sub-Saharan Africa to bring affordable, high-speed internet to unconnected and under-connected communities starting in Kenya.”
