Loon partners with Telefonica's 'Internet for all' to bring balloon-powered connections to Peru

Alphabet's Loon has reached an agreement with the ‘Internet para Todos’ (IPT) project launched last year by Telefonica and Facebook to expand mobile internet access to parts of the Peruvian Amazon using high-altitude balloons. Under the terms of the deal, the partners will work together to serve parts of Loreto, one of Peru’s largest and most remote regions, providing underserved Telefonica customers with mobile internet coverage starting next year. Peru will therefore become the first country in Latin America to use Loon on a sustained, non-emergency basis, upon regulatory approval.

The country’s telecom watchdog Osiptel said internet penetration in Loreto is currently 100 times lower than in the capital Lima. Initially, Loon and IpT will connect nearly 200,000 people in areas making up around 15 percent of Loreto’s surface, a quarter of whom currently lack 3G or better service, especially outside of populated areas. Before launching the service they will need to secure regulatory approval from Peru's Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC).

Loon and Telefonica Peru have been testing balloon-powered technology since 2014 and especially during natural disasters such as the 2017 El Nino floods in Northern Peru and in the wake of this year’s magnitude 8.0 earthquake near Yurimaguas in the Amazon jungle. In both cases the companies provided emergency connectivity to tens of thousands of people cut off by the disasters using stratospheric balloons operating 20 km above sea level.

IPT was launched last year by Telefonica, Facebook, IDB Invest and CAF (Development Bank of Latin America) and has so far connected more than 800,000 Peruvians in over 5,300 rural communities. It officially begun operating in the country in May and aims to bring 4G connectivity to more than 6 million Peruvians in 30,000-plus communities by 2021, the country’s bicentennial.