Kenya yaanza kutumia ‘internet balloons’ na kuwataka watu kutumia 4G

[Drone Camera]

60,000 feet above the sea level-- nani anaweza kurusha jiwe urefu huo???, labda wakate hiyo kamba inayolishikilia kutoka ardhini.

Na risasi haifiki huo urefu?

 

[Mokaze]

Na risasi haifiki huo urefu?

h=V/(√2g). Ambapo h ni sawa na urefu lililopo hilo puto.

 

[Drone Camera]

h=V/(√2g). Ambapo h ni sawa na urefu lililopo hilo puto.

Velocity ya bullet ni ngapi?

 

[Mokaze]

Velocity ya bullet ni ngapi?

Google for AK 47.

 

[Mkikuyu- Akili timamu]

You cannot get any internet directly from a google balloon. The mobile companies are the ones who use them to network transmittion stations in far areas where there is no fiber or electricity.
This is an indictment on the poor state of Kenya's telecom networks infrastructure

 

[Trubarg]

So after you fly toilets now you fly baloons

 

[Mbolabilika]

Rais Uhuru Kenyatta amezindua ‘Loon Internet Balloons’ ambayo yatazipa kasi za 4G simu zote nchini humo. Hii ni baada ya kampuni ya Telkom ya Kenya kuingia Ubia na kampuni ya Alphabet

Rais Kenyatta amewataka raia wake kutumia fursa hiyo kukukuza shughuli zake za kiuchumi. Teknolojia hii iliwahi kutumika Puerto Rico na kuwapa mtandado watu zaidi ya 250,000 baada ya nchi hiyo kukumbwa na kimbunga

Teknolojia hii inatumia nishati ya jua ili kuweka mtandao katika maeneo yenye watu wachache. Maputo hayo huelea futi 60,000 juu ya usawa wa bahari

Kenya ina watu milioni 45, miji yake ina makampuni yanayotoa huduma za mtandao huku maeneo ya nje ya miji hiyo yakiwa hayana mtandao
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President Uhuru Kenyatta has virtually launched the Loon internet balloons that will see mobile phone users in 14 counties access 4G network.
This is after Telkom Kenya entered partnership with Google parent firm Alphabet at an undisclosed amount in the first ever commercial deployment of loon internet balloons in the world.

Speaking during the launch at Radat Centre in Baringo County, Uhuru who addressed locals via live WhatsApp video chat asked them to take advantage of the improved telecommunication infrastructure to advance their social economic activities.

"You now have a faster internet network. You can now sell your honey to the rest of the world. Take full advantage of it," Uhuru said.
ICT CS Joe Mucheru termed the launch as historic, adding that Kenya continues to lead the world in matters technology.

Last year, Alphabet Inc’s Loon said it would deploy its system of balloons to beam high-speed Internet access with Telkom Kenya to cover rural and suburban populations, marking its first commercial deal in Africa.

Known as Project Loon, the technology was developed by Alphabet’s X, the company’s innovation lab. It has since become Loon, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which is the parent company of Google.

The technology was used by U.S. telecom operators to provide connectivity to more than 250,000 people in Puerto Rico after a hurricane last year.

The Loon service uses balloons, which are powered by an on-board solar panel, to provide fourth generation (4G) coverage to areas with lower population densities.
They float at 60,000 feet above the sea level, well above air traffic, wildlife, and weather events, Loon said.

With more than 45 million people, Kenya’s major cities and towns are covered by operator networks, but vast swathes of rural Kenya are not covered

Wanatumiaje mtandao wa 4G ikiwa watu wana hali ngumu wanawezaje kununua sim ya 4G ambayo Thamani yake kuanzia ksh 12,500 huku kukiwa na gharama kubwa za maisha .hiyo 4G itatumika Kwa watu wachache tu

 

[babayao255]

Watu wa wivu hawatapenda habari hii. Watapita kimya kimya na majungu yao.

Alphabet shuts down Loon internet balloon company​

Manish Singh@refsrc / 1:42 AM GMT+1•January 22, 2021
Comment

Image Credits: Project Loon

Google’s parent firm, Alphabet, is done exploring the idea of using a fleet of balloons to beam high-speed internet in remote parts of the world.

The firm said on Thursday evening that it was winding down Loon, a nine-year-old project and a two-and-a-half-year-old spin off firm, after failing to find a sustainable business model and partners for one of its most prominent moonshot projects.

The demise of Loon, which assumed spotlight after the project helped restore cell services knocked out by a hurricane in Puerto Rico, comes a year after the Android-maker ended Google Station, its other major connectivity effort to bring internet to the next billion users.

Through Station, Google provided internet connectivity at over 400 railway stations in India and sought to replicate the model in other public places in more nations.
That said, Alphabet’s move today is still surprising. Just last year, Loon had secured approval from the government of Kenya to launch first balloons to provide commercial connectivity services — something it did successfully achieve months later, giving an impression that things were moving in the right direction.

On its website, Loon has long stated its mission as: “Loon is focused on bringing connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world. We are in discussions with telecommunications companies and governments worldwide to provide a solution to help extend internet connectivity to these underserved areas.”
Perhaps the growing interest of SpaceX and Amazon in this space influenced Alphabet’s decision — if not, the two firms are also going to have to confront some difficult feasibility questions in the future.

“We talk a lot about connecting the next billion users, but the reality is Loon has been chasing the hardest problem of all in connectivity — the last billion users,” wrote Alastair Westgarth, chief executive of Loon, in a blog post.

“The communities in areas too difficult or remote to reach, or the areas where delivering service with existing technologies is just too expensive for everyday people. While we’ve found a number of willing partners along the way, we haven’t found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business. Developing radical new technology is inherently risky, but that doesn’t make breaking this news any easier.”
The blog post characterised Loon’s connectivity effort as success.

“The Loon team is proud to have catalyzed an ecosystem of organizations working on providing connectivity from the stratosphere. The world needs a layered approach to connectivity — terrestrial, stratospheric, and space-based — because each layer is suited to different parts of the problem. In this area, Loon has made a number of important technical contributions,” wrote Westgarth.

What happens next​

In a separate blog post, the firm said it had pledged a fund of $10 million to support nonprofits and businesses focussed on connectivity, internet, entrepreneurship and education in Kenya.

Alphabet also plans to take some of Loon’s technology forward and share what it learned from this moonshot idea with others.

Additionally, “some of Loon’s technology — like the high bandwidth (20Gbps+) optical communication links that were first used to beam a connection between balloons bopping in the stratosphere — already lives on in Project Taara. This team is currently working with partners in Sub-Saharan Africa to bring affordable, high-speed internet to unconnected and under-connected communities starting in Kenya,” the firm said.

Scores of firms including Google and Facebook have visibly scaled down several of their connectivity efforts in recent years after many developing nations such as India that they targeted solved their internet problems on their own.

It has also become clear that subsidizing internet access to hundreds of millions of potential users is perhaps not the most sustainable way to acquire customers.

Alphabet is shutting down Loon connectivity firm

Google’s parent firm, Alphabet, is done exploring the idea of using a fleet of balloons to beam high-speed internet in remote parts of the world. The firm

techcrunch.com

MY TAKE

Hawa jamaa hata mwaka haujapita kurusha ma-balloon hewani ghafla wanafunga; imekuwaje Tony254 ?

 

[Logikos]

"You now have a faster internet network. You can now sell your honey to the rest of the world. Take full advantage of it," Uhuru said.

Could have helped if such honey was digital and downloadable, unless otherwise shipment will continue to be a bottleneck, but as for the digital products..?. Alleluhya!!!