Google is considering the possibility of deploying high-altitude Wi-Fi balloons to provide temporary internet connectivity in Puerto Rico after the US territory was devastated by Hurricane Maria, reports The Verge, citing a tweet from the tech giant’s R&D firm X. “The Project Loon team at X is exploring if it’s possible to bring emergency connectivity to Puerto Rico,” said X lab’s official Twitter account. The Category 4 storm has left almost the entirety of Puerto Rico without electricity, with the FCC last week announcing that 95 percent of the island’s mobile base stations were out of service.
Google’s Project has run pilot programs in New Zealand and Brazil, and it’s also partnered with a number of countries, including Indonesia and Sri Lanka, to deploy LTE via helium balloons. It recently partnered with Level 3 Communications to provide internet access to underserved areas in Peru affected by natural disaster.
