{"id":191,"date":"2015-07-29T21:29:50","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T21:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=257848"},"modified":"2015-07-29T21:33:15","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T21:33:15","slug":"sri-lanka-to-be-first-country-in-the-world-with-universal-internet-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2015\/07\/29\/sri-lanka-to-be-first-country-in-the-world-with-universal-internet-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka to be first country in the world with universal Internet access"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(credit: Google)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sri Lanka may soon become the first country in the world to have universal Internet access. On July 28, the government of Sri Lanka signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Google to launch\u00a0Project Loon<\/a>, according to Sri Lanka Internet newspaper ColumboPage<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Google is providing high-altitude balloons, using the standard telco high-speed\u00a04G LTE<\/a> protocol, according to Project Loon project lead Mike Cassidy, in a video (below), “so anyone with a smart phone will be able to get Internet access. … “Since launching a handful of balloons in New Zealand at our Project launch in 2013 we’ve flown millions of test kilometers around the world trying to learn what it will take to provide connectivity to everyone, anywhere, with balloons.”<\/p>\n

Project Loon began with a pilot test in June 2013, when 30 balloons were launched from New Zealand\u2019s South Island and beamed Internet to a small group of pilot testers, Google notes<\/a>. … “Looking ahead, Project Loon will continue to expand the pilot, with the goal of establishing a ring of uninterrupted connectivity at latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere.”*<\/p>\n

“In a few months we will truly be able to say: Sri Lanka covered,” said Sri Lanka Foreign, Telecommunications and IT Minister Mangala Samaraweera.<\/p>\n

Long-time Sri Lanka resident and telecommunications pioneer Arthur C. Clarke would be proud.<\/p>\n

* “Project Loon is just one way Google is looking to expand Internet coverage around the globe,” PC Magazine reports<\/a>. “Last year,\u00a0it bought satellite maker Skybox<\/a>\u00a0for $500 million to help improve its maps, but also Internet access and disaster relief. Earlier in the year, Google also\u00a0bought Titan Aerospace<\/a>, a company that makes solar-powered, near-orbital drones that can fly for about five years nonstop.”<\/em><\/p>\n