Critics once said that anyone hoping to deliver internet to remote areas via balloons had not only their work in the clouds, but also their heads. Yet earlier this month, the team behind Project Loon announced that they are years closer to their goal of “balloon powered internet for everyone,” convincing some that balloons may in fact be part of the path to connecting the unconnected.
Still, at X — the moonshot factory of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, where Project Loon is being developed — there is recognition that coverage is only one part of the challenge when it comes to reaching the half of the world’s population who have never been online.
“We very much intend to be part of an ecosystem,” Astro Teller, captain of Moonshots at X, told Devex after rollerblading onto a panel discussion at the Google campus in Mountain View, California. Google is actively partnering with actors ranging from telecommunication companies to donor agencies on the connectivity challenge, he said.