Narendra Modi briefed about Project Loon during Google headquarters tour

Project Loon: Google’s flagship Project to provide Internet access to rural and remote areas.

Google’s flagship Project Loon was in news on 30 September 2015 because Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the ambitious project and believed that it has multiple uses like long distance education, rural schools and telemedicine.

PM Modi was briefed about the project during his visit to the Google headquarters in the Silicon Valley on 27 September 2015. Google informed the PM that the company is already doing a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh with a special focus on rural areas which still do not have internet penetration.

Project Loon began in June 2013 with an experimental pilot in New Zealand.

Loon uses high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 32 km to produce an aerial wireless network with up to 3G-like speeds.

Each balloon can provide connectivity to a ground area about 40 km in diameter using a wireless communications technology called LTE.

Google has partnered with Telecommunications companies to share cellular spectrum that will enable the people to connect to the balloon network directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices.

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