Another First

[Useless_Spectator]

Telkom kenya might be the first operational customer for Google loon internet balloons. cheaper faster internet beckons.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-alphabet/alphabet-to-deploy-balloon-internet-in-kenya-with-telkom-in-2019-idUSKBN1K90SV

TECHNOLOGY NEWS
JULY 19, 2018 / 7:19 AM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
Alphabet to deploy balloon Internet in Kenya with Telkom in 2019
Duncan Miriri
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc’s Loon said on Thursday it would deploy its system of balloons to beam high-speed Internet access with Telkom Kenya from next year to cover rural and suburban populations, marking its first commercial deal in Africa.
Known as Project Loon, the technology was developed by Alphabet’s X, the company’s innovation lab. It has since become Loon, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google.
The technology was used by U.S. telecom operators to provide connectivity to more than 250,000 people in Puerto Rico after a hurricane last year. Kenya hopes the technology can help achieve full Internet coverage of its population.
“Loon’s mission is to connect people everywhere by inventing and integrating audacious technologies,” said Alastair Westgarth, the chief executive of Loon.
Telkom Kenya is the third biggest operator in the country behind market leader Safaricom and Bharti Airtel’s Kenyan unit.
“We will work very hard with Loon, to deliver the first commercial mobile service, as quickly as possible, using Loon’s balloon-powered Internet in Africa,” said Aldo Mareuse, the chief executive of Telkom.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Loon service uses balloons, which are powered by an on-board solar panel, to provide fourth generation (4G) coverage to areas with lower population densities.
They float at 60,000 feet above the sea level, well above air traffic, wildlife, and weather events, Loon said.
With more than 45 million people, Kenya’s major cities and towns are covered by operator networks, but vast swathes of rural Kenya are not covered.
A Microsoft-backed Kenyan start-up has been using under-utilized television frequencies to connect some of those rural communities.
Reporting by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[wenya]

Long over due

[spear]

CS Mucheru vision is finally being realized.

[pipinono]

@spear

CS Mucheru vision is finally being realized.

Sasa wewe…kila kitu ni Jubilee Developments!

[spear]

CS Mucheru has been planning this project since 2013 when he was MD google Kenya.

This is his pet project since he joined Jubilee government.

[SIZE=7]Loon headed next for Kenya[/SIZE]

by JULES WANG JULY 6, 2018 11:36 PM

Alphabet’s X incubator lab is expanding long-term deployment of Project Loon to Africa for the first time.

The initiative broadcasts internet signals through Wi-Fi and LTE from durable balloons 20km in the air. Tests were completed through mountainous areas, remote regions and flood zones in Brazil, Indonesia, New Zealand and Peru with average flight times of several dozen days. It was recently launched in Puerto Ricoto connect the island’s phones and tablets in the wake of Hurricane Irma and Maria last year which devastated the US territory’s power and communications grid.
Now, Kenyan information, communication and technology minister Joe Mucheru has told Reuters that Loon team members have been negotiating with local carriers to distribute their signal in the country.
“Loon is another technology that is being introduced that the licensed operators hopefully can be able to use,” Mucheru said. “Connectivity is critical. If you are not online, you are left out.”
Rural cellular coverage is sparse. One Kenyan start-up, with seed money from Microsoft, has been experimenting with ways to distribute wireless service through unoccupied space in the spectrum bands assigned to television.
For its part, Project Loon said that it is constantly in negotiation with potential partner companies and governments in many territories, but has not confirmed specifics to Kenya.

[pipinono]

@spear

CS Mucheru has been planning this project since 2013 when he was MD google Kenya.

This is his pet project since he joined Jubilee government.

[SIZE=7]Loon headed next for Kenya[/SIZE]

by JULES WANG JULY 6, 2018 11:36 PM

Alphabet’s X incubator lab is expanding long-term deployment of Project Loon to Africa for the first time.

The initiative broadcasts internet signals through Wi-Fi and LTE from durable balloons 20km in the air. Tests were completed through mountainous areas, remote regions and flood zones in Brazil, Indonesia, New Zealand and Peru with average flight times of several dozen days. It was recently launched in Puerto Ricoto connect the island’s phones and tablets in the wake of Hurricane Irma and Maria last year which devastated the US territory’s power and communications grid.
Now, Kenyan information, communication and technology minister Joe Mucheru has told Reuters that Loon team members have been negotiating with local carriers to distribute their signal in the country.
“Loon is another technology that is being introduced that the licensed operators hopefully can be able to use,” Mucheru said. “Connectivity is critical. If you are not online, you are left out.”
Rural cellular coverage is sparse. One Kenyan start-up, with seed money from Microsoft, has been experimenting with ways to distribute wireless service through unoccupied space in the spectrum bands assigned to television.
For its part, Project Loon said that it is constantly in negotiation with potential partner companies and governments in many territories, but has not confirmed specifics to Kenya.

I stand corrected. Noted

[Okwonkwo]

speeds?

[Useless_Spectator]

@Okwonkwo

speeds?

4G apparently.Let’s wait and see.

[Jimit]

Maasai Mara should be the first stop