Google's Alphabet sticks a pin in its Loon internet broadband service
- Reference: 1611324128
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/01/22/alphabet_deflates_its_loon_internet/
- Source link:
Word of Loon's cancellation [1]came from the company's CEO , Alastair Westgarth, who attributed the decision to problems in commercialising the tech.
[2]
"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," he said.
"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.”
[3]
Loon started life in 2011 as a project within Alphabet's secretive Google X (later called just "X") skunkworks division. The first official deployment [4]followed in 2013 , with 30 balloons launched into the stratosphere above New Zealand's South Island.
Unlike a hot air balloon, which burns fuel to control its momentum, Loon relied upon helium to provide buoyancy, with an electric air pump used to control the vessel's altitude. Power came from an array of solar cells, with a back-up battery used during night-time conditions. This provided extremely long endurance, with one balloon [5]remaining continuously airborne for 312 days .
Two arrested in Congo after Google Loon mobe balloon meets terra firma more than 1,000km from operating area [6]READ MORE
Network connectivity, meanwhile, was based on standard LTE cellular technology, with the balloons connecting to a terrestrial base-station for backhaul. Punters could expect speeds of up to 1Mbps, which although far from ideal, was nonetheless a vast improvement over dial-up.
In 2018, Google began making tentative moves to turn Loon into a self-sufficient business operating independently, spinning it off as a separate subsidiary. The following year, Softbank invested $125m via its HAPSMobile project, which invests in companies designed to improve global internet access.
Loon's initial goals were laudable, and it focused both on rural areas in developed countries, as well as poorer nations where speedy fixed-line connections are either unaffordable, or simply unavailable. It set the stage for further experimentation with aircraft-based internet provision, with Facebook launching its own (also short-lived) [7]drone-based program in 2016 called Aquila, which used lightweight electrical aircraft to relay signals from communications satellites.
Although it's a shame to see the back of Loon, it's hard to see where the company would go in the long term. In poorer countries, it is mobile networks that have largely picked up the slack of providing internet connectivity, with the GSMA estimating [8]475 million mobile internet users in Africa by the decade's half-point.
[9]
Those living in [10]remote areas of affluent countries have other options, too. Satellite broadband is getting faster and gradually cheaper, with a month's subscription to SpaceX's StarLink [11]costing $99 (or £89 in Blighty) per month , not including equipment costs. This promises speeds beyond those offered by Loon, varying between 50Mbps and 150Mbps. Latencies, which currently hover between 20ms and 40ms, are expected to range between 16ms and 19ms following promised software improvements. ®
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[1] https://medium.com/loon-for-all/loon-draft-c3fcebc11f3f
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YAsEpk0dNj9cemda1zTqJAAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YAsEpk0dNj9cemda1zTqJAAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2013/06/17/google_launches_broadband_balloons_astrophysics_frets/
[5] https://medium.com/loon-for-all/312-days-in-the-stratosphere-5c50bd233ec5
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/27/google_loon_balloon_crash_congo_kenya/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2015/07/30/facebook_internet_drone_737/
[8] https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/sub-saharan-africa/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YAsEpk0dNj9cemda1zTqJAAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2010/12/03/not_spot_diary/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/11/spacex_wins_ofcom_approval_for/
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Well done...
Came to say the same thing about the loonies. Have an upvote.
Starlink
Is beginning to look like a bet.
I saw a youtuber called Wranglerstar who homesteads in the Pacific Northwest, he had just set up a new account and received the kit and thought it was a little expensive but seemed to work well.
Time will tell if the system is good long term and in theory with more uptake should be cheaper.
What I liked, was that the system was fairly portable.
Re: Starlink
You must remember that with great uptake comes great contention.
The will come a point in densely populated areas when there will not be enough bandwidth for the number of users, but Starlinks only way to make more money will be to sign up more users.
Where is a Spiderman icon when you want one?!?
Re: Starlink
Starlink isn't comparable to Loon, it is targeting remote users in wealthy countries who (a) can pay and (b) don't have an alternative. The other thing with Starlink as I understand from a presentation last year... Speed of light is slower through optic fiber than space / air, so Starlink reckon they can get lower latency to do uplink to low-orbit sat, across sats and downlink to target than direct site-to-site connection with optic fibre. If they ca crack that one, it's a jackpot since banks and traders are willing to pay literally billions to have lower-latency connections to exchanges so their traderbots can gain a tiny advantage.
Meanwhile if you're trying to get broadband to the world's poorest billion people, doesn't matter how cheap you make the kit if your propspective 'customers' can barely buy food. From a commercial sense it would only work if government-sponsored.
Why am I not surprised?
Balloons... Seriously, why not strap a WiFi repeater on the back of a large bird (a vulture?) too?
Balloons are unreliable, move around on their own randomly, and even in the best case they don't stay up for very long (apparently less than a year), meaning they need frequent replacement. They might be cheap individually, but if you consider the logistics required, I'm sure the cost skyrockets.
Sounds more like a "Let's create some buzz" project to me.
Re: Why am I not surprised?
RFC 2549 for vultures.
High altitude balloons are great for launching paper airplanes into space.
Trying to launch an ISP is just plain Loony.
Burst balloons
To be fair it worked technically and functionally, just not financially. Who knew that the one billion people without internet access also were dirt poor?
I still think drone blimps are a tech for the future. What links the drone blimps? Higher drone blimps. It's drone blimps all the way up.
Well done...
..youve discovered what the rest of the world outside the tech bubble knew from day one.