Google Testing Balloon-Based Internet In Sri Lanka

Google tested its “Project Loon” in Sri Lanka airspace on Monday with the first balloon and two more are said to be hitting the country’s coastline by February-end.

Project Loon is an ambitious technology of the search engine to deliver high-speed Internet.

Chief of the government’s Information and Communications Technology Agency, Muhunthan Canagey, said one of the upcoming balloons is currently off the East Coast of South Africa and may reach Sri Lanka by next week where as the other one may reach in another twelve days.

It is also learned some more members of Google team may be arriving to the country later this week to test spectrum efficiency, flight controls and other technical aspects of the balloons.

Data reveals not even one-quarter of the 20 million population of Sri Lanka has access to the Internet. There are only about 3.3 million mobile data subscribers and 630,000 fixed line Internet connections.

However, not to forget Sri Lanka was the first country to offer mobile phones in South Asia in 1989. It was also the first to introduce 3G network in 2004. Two years ago it rolled out 4G connectivity too.

Google has successfully conducted tests in California, New Zealand and Brazil.