Google and Sri Lankan Government has entered into an agreement to provide internet service access across the entire Island Nation using Google’s Project Loon. The service is expected to commence by March 2016.
“The entire Sri Lankan island – every village from (southern) Dondra to (northern) Point Pedro – will be covered with affordable high speed Internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology,”
said Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera
Project Loon is a network of high altitude helium filled balloons travelling in the stratosphere which aims to provide internet coverage and services to remote and rural areas. Loon has so far been tested in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, New Mexico and New Zealand.
Google would be partnering with Local Operators to deliver the LTE access while the service won’t be free it is expected to bring down the cost of connectivity and improve the quality of service in the country.
Sri Lanka would become the first nation to use Google Loon project to provide internet service access and coverage. The country is the first nation in Southern Asia to introduce mobile phones back in 1989 and the first to roll out 3G network in 2004. It also became the first to roll out 4G network in the region in 2013.
Source: ZDNet
