Google ready to test Project Loon in Indonesia, bringing wifi to remote areas
Earlier today, Google’s parent company Alphabet announced its high-flying Project Loon has partnered with Indonesia’s three largest telcos to start countrywide testing. It will deliver internet access in rural areas at the beginning of next year.
Don’t know what Project Loon is? Essentially, it’s an initiative that uses high-altitude balloons to bring internet coverage to remote areas, developing nations, or places that otherwise don’t have web access. Indonesia is a likely candidate for the project as its geography — a nation divided by water into more than 17,000 islands — makes implementing broadband and telecoms infrastructure a bona fide nightmare.
Executives from Telkomsel, XL Axiata, and Indosat today unveiled the plan with Project Loon’s point man Mike Cassidy and Google co-founder Sergey Brin at a press event in Silicon Valley. Indonesia is now the fourth country behind Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand, over which Loon will launch balloons more than a dozen miles into the sky and drop down internet access to smartphones.
Earlier this month, Indonesia’s telcos had mixed feelings about this proposed initiative. “Clearly, the project would harm not only Telkom, but also other telecommunication companies,” Indra Utoyo, Telkom director of innovation and strategic portfolio told the media. “That means Google would bypass us.”
今月すでに、インドネシアの通信会社は、この提案された構想に対して複雑な心境を抱いていた。「明らかに、このプロジェクトは、Telkomだけでなく他の通信会社にも損害を与えるかもしれません」 とTelkomイノベーション・戦略的ポートフォリオ部長のIndra Utoyo氏はメディアに語った。「それは、Googleは私たちを抜きにすることを意味します」
今月、インドネシアの通信企業はこの構想提案に対して複雑な心境であった。「Telkomだけでなく、他の通信企業にも害が及ぶことが目に見えています」と、Telkomイノベーション・戦略的ポートフォリオディレクターのIndra Utoyo氏はメディアに語った。「これはGoogleが私たちを無視することを意味します。」
However, now that Telkomsel is in on the deal, everything should presumably be rosy between both parties. Now, Telkom indicates that Project Loon will run for 12 months as an experiment before it can become a commercial project. Project Loon is set to use the 900 Mhz frequency in five skypoints above Sumatra, Kalimantan, and East Papua.
Bringing Indonesia’s rural population online is a task multiple parties are attempting to tackle. Back in May, Indonesian satellite service provider BigNet inked a US$78 million, long-term agreement with Singapore-based Kacific Broadband Satellites. The goal is to bring a new form of high-speed broadband service to Indonesia starting in 2017. Kacific aims to beam signals straight from its own satellites to cover the entire archipelago. It has a particular emphasis on providing good quality, affordable internet to developing areas in East Indonesia.
Dog fighting for internet in the sky
Project Loon started back in 2011. Loon’s initial testing phase in New Zealand used 30 balloons in 2013. Australia and Brazil soon followed. The tests helped shape Loon’s current approach of saddling up with telecoms, allowing them to own certain parts of the spectrum, instead of trying to negotiate unused parts of the spectrum to use for free. Cassidy claims the project will send up hundreds of balloons over Indonesia.
Project Loonは2011年に始まった。2013年に行われたニュージーランドでのLoonの最初の試験段階では30個の風船が使用された。すぐにオーストラリアとブラジルがそれに続いた。これらの試験は、電気通信会社が乗り込んだLoonの現在のアプローチの構築に貢献し、スペクトルの使われていない部分の無料での使用を交渉する変わりに、スペクトルの特定部分を電気通信会社が所有できるようにした。Cassidy氏は、このプロジェクトでインドネシア上空に何百個もの風船を飛ばすと断言している。
Project Loonは遡ること2011年に始まった。2013年、ニュージーランドでのLoonの初期の試験段階では30機の気球が使われた。オーストラリアとブラジルがすぐに後に続いた。試験は、使われていない周波数帯域の一部を無料で使用することについて交渉を試みる代わりに、通信会社に周波数帯域の特定の帯域を所有することを許しつつ、通信会社を利用して進めるというLoonの現行のアプローチを形作る助けとなった。
Cassidy氏は、インドネシアの上空に数百という気球を打ち上げると断言した。
In Indonesia, increasing internet penetration is important because only about 30 percent of the population has access to the web. Where it is available, data speeds are slow due to poor infrastructure. With Loon, Google is able to take signals produced from Indonesia’s three big telcos and redistribute them from the stratosphere, high above airplanes and natural weather events. From there, the signal can bounce around between multiple balloons and blanket remote sections of the country. People with phones that can connect to the internet see the signal as a standard wifi network.
The firms claim download speeds will be up to 10Mbps, which is comparable to the average download speed in the US. For Alphabet, Project Loon is part of its efforts to bring online more than 4 billion people around the world who currently live without internet access. More people online in Indonesia inevitably means more Google searches, which is good for Alphabet.
It might also mean more Android users. Android is already the world’s most-used mobile operating system. It’s particularly strong in countries like Indonesia, where many folks are looking to purchase cheap phones.
それはまたAndroidユーザが多くなるという意味にもなるかもしれない。Androidはすでに世界で最も使われている携帯オペレーティングシステムだ。とりわけ、Androidは多くの人が安い電話を買い求めるインドネシアのような国では強い。
また、Androidユーザが増えることにもなる。Androidは、既に世界で最も利用されているオペレーティング・システムである。多くの人々が安価な電話を購入しようとするインドネシアのような国では、とりわけ優勢である。
Alphabet isn’t the only company looking to deliver internet to developing nations. Facebook recently launched Internet.org in Indonesia. Following its acquisition of drone company Ascenta, Facebook plans to utilize self-piloted, solar-powered internet airplanes to support Internet.org. The aircraft, which Facebook calls Aquila, has a wingspan of a Boeing 747 and is designed to stay in the air for nearly three months, doling out wifi from the blue yonder. Though their approaches are not the same, Facebook and Google are competing head-on to snap up emerging market telco partnerships and dish out internet access in places that were previously remote.
Who will win the battle in delivering internet from the sky in Indonesia: Facebook, Google, or local satellite service providers? What could this mean for the archipelago’s internet businesses?
