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</style><title>Google to sign Internet balloon deals with Kenya telcos - Business Daily</title><div class="original-url">Listers</div><div class="original-url"><br></div><div class="original-url">This is a welcome development.</div><div class="original-url"><br><a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/companies/Google-to-sign-Internet-balloon-deals-Kenya-telcos/4003102-4633394-ehjd9bz/index.html?utm_source=traqli&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=bdafrica_newsletter&tqid=nfytfX02XBMBjxtagtuzk3CC5G8Wr24kZKMVTCLz">https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/companies/Google-to-sign-Internet-balloon-deals-Kenya-telcos/4003102-4633394-ehjd9bz/index.html?utm_source=traqli&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=bdafrica_newsletter&tqid=nfytfX02XBMBjxtagtuzk3CC5G8Wr24kZKMVTCLz</a><br><br></div><div id="article" role="article" style="text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="system exported">
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<div class="page" style="text-align: start; word-wrap: break-word; max-width: 100%;"><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.95552em; line-height: 1.2141em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: start; -webkit-hyphens: manual; display: block; max-width: 100%;">Google to sign Internet deals with Kenya telcos</h1><div class="metadata singleline" style="text-align: start; -webkit-hyphens: manual; display: block; margin-bottom: 1.45em; margin-top: -0.75em; max-width: 100%;"><small class="byline" style="margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; font-size: 1em !important; font-weight: normal !important; font-style: normal !important; display: inline !important;">Wednesday, June 27, 2018 9:10</small></div>
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By IVY NYAYIEKA</small>
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<img src="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/image/view/-/4633398/medRes/2023712/-/maxw/960/-/i1f8fi/-/balloon.jpg" alt="Google Project Loon balloon" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0.5em auto; display: block; height: auto;">
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Visitors stand next to a high altitude WiFi internet hub, a Google Project Loon balloon, on display in Christchurch, USA. The project aims to bring Internet to global populations currently without web access. AFP PHOTO / MARTY MELVILLE
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<div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Technology giant Google is looking to sign deals with Kenyan telecommunications operators that will deliver mobile internet coverage to remote locations through a network of floating balloons that could also significantly cut costs.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Google, through its Project Loon, has embarked on a global campaign to increase internet connectivity among the millions of people living in rural areas without ground stations and fibre connections.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Kenya’s Ministry of ICT welcomed the move arguing that an aerial network would bring down costs and deepen internet use across all segments of the population.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">“It is companies such as X [formerly Google X] that innovate and provide solutions that benefit our city. We welcome the use of high-altitude balloons to create an aerial wireless network that offers real benefits to consumers,” said principal secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) Sammy Itemere. </p></div>
<div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">The PS, who was speaking during the opening of a workshop to sensitise stakeholders on the balloon technology, said the balloon network with up to 4G-LTE speeds, would help Kenya multiply ICT’s impact on the economy.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">A 2017 report by Jumia and GSMA mobile found that 67 per cent of Kenyans can access the internet, mainly using mobile devices. This was above Africa’s 18 per cent average. Loon balloons are less expensive to install than communications satellites and are known to offer stronger internet connectivity.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">This potentially means a huge reduction in the cost of internet connection for telecoms operators - a benefit that may trickle down to users. The balloons enable the nearest telecommunications partner’s ground station to receive the wireless internet signals that are then transmitted across the network of balloons and then back down to users’ mobile phones on the ground.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Each balloon can cover up to 5000 square kilometers and uses only renewable energy.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Google said it has deployed 10 balloons for testing in Nakuru, Nanyuki, Nyeri and Marsabit.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Locally, Telkom said it has been in consultation with Project Loon but no partnerships have been confirmed. </p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">“Telkom has not yet deployed any service on this solution as we are still in discussions with the team from Loon to conclude on potential partnerships and synergies, using their solutions,” George Mlaghui, the chief corporate communications officer at Telkom said in a statement.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Yesterday, it emerged that there is anxiety over the safety of the unmanned Loon balloons given the incident at the end of last year, when a balloon that was being navigated to land in a sparsely populated area landed on a farm in Meru. </p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Globally, balloon crashes have occurred in nearly 10 countries, including Panama and the USA.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">Project Loon has however been lauded for its role in providing internet to disaster-stricken areas. Notably, it partnered with AT&T to provide coverage to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">It also worked with the Peruvian government and Telefonica when floods destroyed infrastructure in Peru.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">ICT ministry officials said the balloon technology would complement the national fibre network that has been laid out in all counties, and which they are working on further extending to sub counties.</p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;">READ: <a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/tech/Kenya-tops-in-phone-internet-traffic-/4258474-4349966-3m4lrez/index.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Kenya tops in phone internet traffic globally</a></p></div><div style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;"><a href="https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/corporate/tech/Tech-start-ups--telcos-unite-to-spread-innovation-gains/4258474-4388588-qiio88z/index.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Tech start-ups, telcos unite to spread innovation gains</a></p></div></div></div></div><br><br><div id="AppleMailSignature"><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);"><b>Ali Hussein</b></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);"><b>Principal</b></span></div><div><b style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">AHK & Associates</b></div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; ">+254 0713 601113 </div><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; "><br></div><div><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Twitter: @AliHKassim</span></p><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font></font></span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Skype: abu-jomo</span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">LinkedIn: <a href="http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim" target="_blank">http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim</a></span></p><font><br></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.294118); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.231373);"><br></span></div>Sent from my iPad</div></body></html>