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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)
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