This archive report was first published on 16 December 2019.
Published on December 16, 2019, Google's mother company Alphabet is set to bring internet to rural Uganda through its innovative Loon project.
Loon, a subsidiary of Alphabet, uses large balloons carrying solar-powered equipment in the sky to send high-speed internet signals to the ground.
According to Anna Prouse, the head of government relations at Loon, the company is searching for a local telco partner to start operations in Uganda.
"Our balloons will need to connect to physical cell towers of an operator in order to send a message to other balloons so that people in that area can be connected," Dr Prouse explained.
The balloons, designed to stay around 20km above sea level for 200 days, will be moving by surfing wind channels predicting speeds and directions. Each carries an antenna which relays internet signals transmitted from the ground, extending coverage over an area of 5,000sq km using 4G internet.
Loon has already started gathering wind data to understand how to navigate over Ugandan skies before starting commercial agreements.
Uganda's broadband connectivity was still limited in 2018, with just 45 per cent of the country having 3G coverage on mobile devices, according to the National Information Technology Authority.
Loon has been holding trials in several African countries, including Uganda, and has received approval from the Kenyan government to begin tests after striking an agreement with Telkom Kenya to provide 4G to remote areas.
