Google Parent Alphabet to shut down Loon, its internet beaming balloon project

The parent company of Google Alphabet announced Thursday that it is shutting down Loon, a project to spread internet connectivity from balloons floating in the stratosphere.

The project grew out of X, Alphabet’s self-proclaimed moonshot factory for experimental projects, which also developed the company’s driverless car and delivery drone services. Alphabet, however, found Loon’s business model unsustainable and said it couldn’t get costs low enough to keep operating.

“The road to commercial viability has turned out to be much longer and riskier than expected,” Astro Teller, who runs X, said in a blog post. “So we made the difficult decision to shut down Loon.”

Loon, who debuted in 2013, was separated from Division X three years ago. The project was intended to serve rural areas of the world that lack robust broadband infrastructure, serving as flying cell towers.

For Google, the effort wasn’t just about altruism. If successful, this would have been a way to bolster the tech giant’s huge software business. The more people the company can put online, the more people it can persuade to use its services, such as search, maps, and YouTube.

Before the shutdown, Loon had already started the commercial rollout. In July, the company launched a pilot service in Kenya. Prior to that, the technology had been tested in emergency situations, most notably in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria swept across the island in 2017.

Teller said employees who were working on the project would be reassigned within Google and Alphabet, but a small group of workers would remain on Loon’s team to end the program in Kenya.