Alphabet s Other Bet punt turns out not to be a winner
System designed to provide broadband to the last billion unserved consumers on earth
Alphabet, Google s parent company, has let the last of the gas out of the once-huge hype-bag that kept the Loon project in the air. Loon was an initiative that was supposed to provide wireless mobile telecoms and broadband Internet coverage via arrays of helium balloons sited in the stratosphere.
But, even in an industry infamous for its hyperventilating hyperbole, a truly immense amount of hot air and other gases swirled around Loon from the moment the project was announced and continued to vent for years thereafter until the roaring fumarole eventually dwindled to the occasional windy burble. Technology journalists, who covered Loon stories multiple times and were really quite engaged by the potential of the technology were nonetheless very thankful when the hurricane of press releases finally petered out.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) Google s parent company is letting the air out of an internet-beaming balloon company that was providing online access from the stratosphere.
The plan to shut down Loon was announced late Thursday, ending what started out nine years ago as one of Google s secret projects in its so-called “moonshot factory, a division now called X. Google, Loon and X all are owned by Alphabet Inc., which draws upon Google s digital advertising empire finance risky ideas like internet-beaming balloons and another high-profile flop, internet-connected glasses.
As reflected by its name, Loon was viewed as a crazy idea from the start. Yet Google s hopes for the project were a lofty as the high-flying balloons themselves when the company finally took the wraps off the project in New Zealand in June 2013.