Alphabet's Loon To Bring Internet Connectivity To People In Amazon Remote Areas

Loon, Alphabet’s subsidiary, recently announced its plans on working with Internet Para Todos Perú to bring internet connectivity to people living in remote regions in Amazon in Peru.

To realize this plan, the company will make use of its high altitude balloons which fly 20 kilometers above the sea level. These balloons will then become floating cell towers to offer service to 4G/LTE devices.

A region where there are around 200,000 residents will be the first to access the service. It is worth noting that, one-fourth of these people currently don’t have access to 3G connectivity, let alone 4G. What’s worse is that people living in sparsely populated areas can’t even access mobile services.

Back in 2017, Loon operated in the country when Northern Peru suffered from the El Niño floods to provide internet connectivity. Similarly, when an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Peru, the company also offered emergency connectivity services.

If everything goes right, the project will start in 2020. This deployment makes Peru the first Latin American country to access Loon’s internet connectivity on a non-emergency, sustained basis.

CEO of Loon, Alastair Westgarth expressed that the company was grateful for this partnership between Loon and Peru. As they continued to work toward their mission of helping people stay connected, they would be delighted to work with IpT as well as Telefónica del Perú.

After Kenya, Peru is the second country that will sign a contract for the expansion of its mobile network services. In Kenya, Loon is waiting to receive regulatory approval to carry out final tests and start the project.