Google has announced it will launch its Project Loon in Indonesia in 2016. Starting next year, Indonesia’s top three mobile network operators, Indosat, Telkomsel, and XL Axiata, will start testing Project Loon balloon-powered internet services. Over the next few years, Google hopes that its Loon project will help provide LTE internet connections for over 100 million Indonesians.
Currently, in Indonesia, only 1 out of every 3 people are connected to the internet, and most of their connections are very slow. Many people live in areas without existing internet infrastructure, mainly due to the country’s geographic peculiarities. On an archipelago of over 17,000 islands, with mountains and jungles, it is difficult to run fiber optic cable or install mobile phone towers.
The Loon balloons acts like floating cell phone towers in the sky, Google says. Each one beams a connection down to the ground, as one balloon drifts out of range, another moves in to take its place. Google believes this technology could help local operators extend the coverage of their existing networks, and reach further into rural and remote areas
