Alphabet’s Loon Balloons Can Now Cover 1000km of Internet Connectivity via 1 Access Point

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Alphabet’s Loon Balloons Can Now Cover 1000km of Internet Connectivity via 1 Access Point

By CircleID Reporter
September 13, 2018, 6:54 pm PDT Views: 10,595 Comments: 1

Loon, formerly a Google X project and now an independent Alphabet company, reveals that it successfully transmitted data over a 1000 kilometers (621 miles) via a network of 7 balloons. This new milestone was achieved using a new custom antenna that stretched a 100km connection between two balloons ten times further across seven balloons. Why does this matter? Salvatore Candido, Head of Engineering at Loon, explains: “Even with our balloons’ expanded coverage area?—?which is 20 to 30 times greater than a traditional ground-based system?—?there are people who live outside the reach of one of our balloons operating adjacent to a backhaul connection on the ground. If we can extend our reach by passing that connection across a network of balloons, like a cosmic soccer team advancing the ball through the sky, we can cover far more people.”

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

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Does one need an account for Loon? Bob Frankston – Sep 24, 2018 4:33 PM

Can I simply connect to loon or is there a login/registration process?

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