Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying that “the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped.”
OAKLAND: Google parent Alphabet Inc is shutting down its internet balloon business, Loon, which aimed to provide a less expensive alternative to cell towers, saying that “the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped.” Founded in 2011, Loon aimed to bring connectivity to areas of the world where building cell towers is too expensive or treacherous by using balloons the length of tennis courts to float solar-powered networking gear high above the Earth. But the wireless carriers that Loon saw as buyers of its technology have questioned its technical and political viability. “While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business,” Loon chief executive Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post. Alphabet executive Astro Teller said in a separate blog post that despite Loon’s “groundbreaking technical achievements” over the past nine years, “the road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped.
