Puerto Rico is slowly recovering from the devastation caused by hurricanes Mari and Irma, and millions of people are still said to be living without electricity but the recovery process is slower than expected due to disruption of communication infrastructure, including internet. Now, Google has officially announced Alphabet's Project Loon in Puerto Rico to provide internet to the affected regions.
The move comes days after the search giant offered to provide cellular network in Puerto Rico via Project Loon, which is designed to deliver internet connectivity to rural and remote areas worldwide. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has said that 83 percent of the cell sites in the Spanish country and several US Virgin Islands were disrupted by hurricanes Mari and Irma.
Google has now announced that it is collaborating with AT&T to provide emergency internet service to the hardest hit parts of the island through its Project Loon. Some people with LTE enabled phones can now have access to the internet and send text messages. It will keep the internet-beaming balloons in areas that need connectivity for as long as possible.
"This is the first time we have used our new machine learning powered algorithms to keep balloons clustered over Puerto Rico, so we're still learning how best to do this," wrote Alastair Westgarth, Head of Project Loon, in a blog post.
"We plan to continue to offer emergency internet connectivity in areas where it's needed for as long as it is useful and we're able to do so. Project Loon is still an experimental technology and we're not quite sure how well it will work, but we hope it helps get people the information and communication they need to get through this unimaginably difficult time," he added.
The company said that the "Project Loon team has been working with the Government of Puerto Rico, the FCC, the FAA, FEMA, spectrum partners and international aviation authorities to bring balloon-powered internet to the island" in the weeks following the disaster.
