Just a few weeks ago Puerto Rico was strike a heavy blow by Hurricane Irma , fleetly followed by a sucker punch from Hurricane Maria . Along with leaving 1000000 of people without food orwater , the devastating storms disabled up to 82 percent of their cellular telephone towers , meaning much of the island is still swerve off from the external humankind and each other .
One of the most refreshing attempts to provide a help hand is follow from the companyX , who want to launch a series of balloon to restore communication theory to the island as part ofProject Loon .
Their lawn tennis - court sized polyethylene balloon are in effect just float cellular phone towers . They are floated up to around 20 klick ( 65,600 foot ) into Earth ’s stratosphere simply using He , where they can beam down emergency cellular LTE service to an arena of 5,000 square kilometers ( 1,930 straight Admiralty mile ) below .
The Federal Communications Commission ( FCC)approved an “ experimental license”on Fridayfor Project Loon , conduct by Google ’s parent party Alphabet , to fly their balloons over Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands for up to six calendar month .
“ More than two weeks after Hurricane Maria affect , million of Puerto Ricans are still without access to much - require communication service . That ’s why we demand to take innovative approach to help restore connectivity on the island . Project Loon is one such glide path , ” said LCC Chairman Ajit Varadaraj Pai .
“ It could help provide the the great unwashed of Puerto Rico with admittance to cellular service to connect with have a go at it ones and access code life - saving information , ” he add up .
That ’s the first step at least but there ’s still much more oeuvre to be done as Project Loon has to hook up with a local telecommunication better half to fetch up up . " We ’re grateful for the support of the FCC and the Puerto Rican authorisation as we wreak hard to see if it ’s possible to use Loon balloons to add emergency connectivity to the island during this metre of need . To deliver signaling to citizenry ’s devices , Loon needs be integrated with a phone service better half ’s internet — the balloon ca n’t do it alone , " Libby Leahy , Adam spokesperson , said in an emailed statement .
" We ’ve been do solid progress on this next step and would like to give thanks everyone who ’s been lending a hired hand . "
Facebook has made a alike toast to reestablish connectivity to the area . Two weeks ago , Facebook chief Mark Zuckerbergposted say : “ We ’re working to get Puerto Rico back online . We ’re sending the Facebook connectivity team to present emergency telecommunication aid to get the systems up and run . ” However , since this postal service , news about any evolution on the toast has been passably fragile .
Elon Musk has also thrown his chapeau in the ring as go - to Redeemer , offering tohelp rebuild Peurto Rico ’s power gridusing renewable energy .
Project Loon has previouslyused its Wi - Fi balloon technologyto reconnect in the wake of utmost rains and flooding in Peru to begin with this twelvemonth . Beyond providing emergency ministration , they also have high ambitions to avail link rural and distant corners of the world without an Internet connectivity .
