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Operator Telkom Kenya will use the stratospheric balloon network from next year to connect isolated inhabitants. This is the first commercial deployment of this technology
Facebook and Google have been busy for several years developing high-altitude platforms designed to connect the planet's populations still excluded from the Internet. If the first has just failed to set up his drone Aquila, the second formalizes this week the first commercial deployment in Kenya of its Loon, this network of stratospheric balloons.
A sacred victory, five years after the first experiments at the within Labo X of Google. The launch will be done in cooperation with the operator Telkom Kenya who will rely on the balloons to extend the coverage of its network.
A simple 4G SIM card for users
Posted at 18,000 meters above from the ground, these balloons are inflated with helium and over-pressurized so as not to burst. They also have 4G radio transmitters and receivers to connect the balloons to each other and to the Internet via one or more base stations. This is how they provide a network for ground users, for whom the process is transparent. They just need to acquire a SIM card to access the Internet, just like for mobile telephones.
Powered by solar energy, balloons (and their electronic components) are controlled by a complex navigation system to maintain them as far as possible over specific areas despite the winds and the weather. Fortunately, each of them can cover up to 5000 square kilometers. But their lifespan is limited and they need to be replaced regularly. Trials were carried out in New Zealand, South Africa, Peru or Puerto Rico after the pbadage of Hurricane Maria in 2017. For the record, this American success is also a little hexagonal, since CNES, the French Space Agency, collaborated in the project
Alphabet had already announced last week to create a subsidiary dedicated to Loon, and another to Wing, its delivery drone project. The balloons will take off first.
With 01net
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