It never really took off (commercially), apparently
Alphabet has stuck a pin in its Project Loon broadband project, which sought to use high-altitude balloons to extend connectivity to areas considered hard to reach by traditional telcos. Word of Loon’s cancellation came from the company’s CEO, Alastair Westgarth, who attributed the decision to problems in commercialising the tech. « We talk a lot about connecting the next billion users, but the reality is Loon has been chasing the hardest problem of all in connectivity — the last billion users: The communities in areas too difficult or remote to reach, or the areas where delivering service with existing technologies is just too expensive for everyday people, » he said. « 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. Developing radical new technology is inherently risky, but that doesn’t make breaking this news any easier.” Loon started life in 2011 as a project within Alphabet’s secretive Google X (later called just « X ») skunkworks division. The first official deployment followed in 2013, with 30 balloons launched into the stratosphere above New Zealand’s South Island.
