{"id":52106,"date":"2016-02-16T09:04:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-16T16:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=52106"},"modified":"2016-02-16T09:04:12","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T16:04:12","slug":"googles-project-loon-enters-sri-lanka-for-internet-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/02\/16\/googles-project-loon-enters-sri-lanka-for-internet-tests\/","title":{"rendered":"Google\u2019s \u2018Project Loon\u2019 enters Sri Lanka for Internet tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Manila Times<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

COLOMBO:<\/strong> Google\u2019s balloon-powered high-speed Internet service known as Project Loon\u201d began its first tests in Sri Lanka Monday (Tuesday in Manila) ahead of a planned joint venture with Colombo, the country\u2019s top IT official said.<\/p>\n

One of three balloons that will be used in the trials entered Sri Lankan airspace, the Information and Communication Technology Agency chief Muhunthan Canagey said.<\/p>\n

The first balloon entered our airspace this morning. It was launched from South America.\u201d Canagey told AFP. It is currently over southern Sri Lanka.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a Google team was expected later this week to test flight controls, spectrum efficiency and other technical matters.<\/p>\n

The government announced earlier this month it would take a 25 percent stake in a joint venture with Google to deliver a high-speed Internet service powered by helium-filled balloons.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is not investing any capital, but will take the stake in return for allocating spectrum for the project. A further 10 percent of the joint venture would be offered to existing telephone service providers on the island.<\/p>\n

It promises to extend coverage and cheaper rates for data services.<\/p>\n

Service providers will be able to access higher speeds and improve the quality of their existing service once the balloon project is up and running.<\/p>\n

The balloons, once in the stratosphere, will be twice as high as commercial airliners and barely visible to the naked eye. The balloons will have a lifespan of about 180 days, but can be recycled, according to Sri Lankan officials involved in the venture.<\/p>\n

Official figures show there are 3.3 million mobile Internet connections and 630,000 fixed line Internet subscribers among Sri Lanka\u2019s more than 20 million population.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia to introduce mobile phones in 1989 and the first to roll out a 3G network in 2004. It was also the first in the region to unveil a 4G network two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy The Manila Times COLOMBO: Google\u2019s balloon-powered high-speed Internet service known as Project Loon\u201d began its first tests in Sri Lanka Monday (Tuesday in Manila) ahead of a planned joint venture with Colombo, the country\u2019s top IT official said. One of three balloons that will be used in the trials entered Sri Lankan airspace, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}