Alphabet is ending its Loon project.
Alphabet
Google’s parent company Alphabet said on Thursday it was shutting down Loon, a project aimed at reducing Internet connectivity from balloons floating in the stratosphere.
The project was born from X, Alphabet’s self-described moonshot factory for experimental projects, which also developed the company’s driverless car and delivery drone services. Alphabet, however, considered Loon’s business model unsustainable and said it would not be able to cut costs enough to continue operating.
“The road to commercial viability has proven to be much longer and riskier than expected,” said Astro Teller, who heads X, in a blog post. “Therefore, we made the difficult decision to close Loon.”
Loon, which debuted in 2013, left Division X three years ago. The project was designed to serve rural parts of the world that do not have a robust broadband infrastructure, serving as flying cell towers.
For Google, the effort was not just about altruism. If successful, it would be a way to boost the tech giant’s huge software business. The more people the company gets online, the more people can persuade to use its services, such as searches, maps and YouTube.
Before closing, Loon had already started commercial deployment. In July, the company launched a pilot service in Kenya. Before that, the technology had been tested in emergency situations, including in Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria swept the island in 2017.
Teller said the employees who worked on the project would be transferred to Google and Alphabet, but a small group of workers would remain on the Loon team to end the Kenya program.