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Loon, which was spun out of Google parent Alphabet Inc's <GOOGL.O>
business incubator, and HAPSMobile, a unit of SoftBank Group
Corp's <9984.T> domestic telco, plan to deliver high speed
internet to remote areas by flying network equipment at high
altitudes.
Lobbying efforts by the two firms, which formed an alliance last
year, are being joined by companies including aerospace firm
Airbus <AIR.PA>, network vendors Nokia <NOKIA.HE> and Ericsson <ERICb.ST>
and telcos China Telecom <0728.HK>, Deutsche Telekom <DTEGn.DE>,
Telefonica <TEF.MC> and Bharti Airtel <BRTI.NS>.
The backing is a vote of confidence in the technology after
Alphabet this month shut down another of its big bets, Makani,
which aimed to generate wind energy with kites, in a move widely
seen as signaling pressure from CEO Sundar Pichai for unproven
businesses like Loon to start delivering results.
The expanded alliance announced in a joint statement aims to
secure spectrum and promote uniform regulation and industry-wide
standards for the high altitude vehicles, which carry network
equipment on balloons in the case of Loon and drones with
HAPSMobile. Both systems are solar powered.
Loon has already struck deals with wireless carriers in Kenya
and Peru. Such technology allows telcos to extend coverage into
hard-to-reach areas where there is low population density or
geographical obstacles like mountains and maintain service after
disasters.
HAPSMobile, the brainchild of SoftBank Corp's <9434.T> Chief
Technology Officer Junichi Miyakawa, aims to commercialize its
services in 2023 and has been conducting low altitude test
flights of its drones, which have a wingspan of almost 80 meters
(87.49 yards), from a NASA facility in California.
The devices fly in the stratosphere, which offers mild weather
all year round and low latency, which is just 20 kilometers
above the Earth's surface, compared to satellites which even in
low-orbit are at an altitude of 1,200 kilometers.
The solar-powered HAWK30 drone can currently only stay airborne
all year round at latitudes of plus or minus 30 degrees from the
equator, constraining its ability to operate in northerly
countries like United States and Japan - although a planned
future device will extend that to 50 degrees.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Additional reporting by Paresh Dave;
Editing by Christopher Cushing)
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