Company to use balloons to bring more internet to Kenya

Part of an American company has announced plans to deploy a system of balloons over Kenya.

Loon, a business of Alphabet Inc, says it is working with the telecommunications company Telkom Kenya on the balloon project.

The goal is to offer high-speed internet service in rural areas and communities outside major cities.

This is Alphabet Inc’s first commercial deal in Africa. The Reuters news agency says the program will be called Project Loon.

The technology was developed by Alphabet’s X, the laboratory which invents products for the company. Alphabet X is now called Loon. It is a separate company owned by Alphabet, which operates Google.

In the United States, telecommunications businesses are already using this kind of technology. It was used to provide connectivity to more than 250,000 people on the island of Puerto Rico after a power storm last year.

Kenya hopes the technology can help provide full internet coverage to its population. Telkom Kenya is the third biggest internet provider in the country after Safaricom and Bharti Airtel’s Kenyan unit. Currently, Safaricom is the market leader in the country.

“We will work very hard with Loon, to deliver the first commercial mobile service, as quickly as possible, using Loon’s balloon-powered Internet in Africa,” said Aldo Mareuse, the chief executive of Telkom Kenya.

The Loon service uses balloons, which are powered by solar equipment. They float at a height of 18-thousand meters above sea level, well above air traffic, wildlife, and weather events, Loon said.

Kenya is home to more than 45 million people. Telecommunications companies provide service to major cities and towns. But large areas of rural Kenya are not covered.

A Microsoft Corporation-supported Kenyan start-up has been using television frequencies to connect some of those rural communities.

VOA