MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (UPI) — A Google spinoff is reimagining an idea formed during its earliest history to provide high-speed Internet to remote areas.
The spinoff company, Aalyria, was unveiled Monday. It comprises of some Google employees who were on the original project, named “Loon.” The project was to transfer the technology in development for other wireless network uses.
Loon, which was shut down last year, was working on a plan to use balloons to beam Internet to remote areas.
In the long run, Aalyria hopes to eventually reach its original goal of creating fast, long-distance wireless communications, but without the balloons. The company said it has secured an $8.7 million contract with a unit of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Google to have a minority stake in the spinoff
Google has a minority stake in the new spinoff. One of its executives includes Vint Cerf, one of the world’s foremost Internet pioneers and chief Internet officer at Google.
Aalyria engineers will take the software used by the Loon group. They will then turn it into a cloud-based system for managing complex networks. It will connect things like satellites, planes, and boats with high-speed Internet.
Aalyria project is a close secret
Google has had a tight lip about Aalyria. However, they would release a statement that said Aalyria’s mission will be to manage “hyper-fast, ultra-secure, and highly complex communications networks that span land, sea, air, near space, and deep space.”
Google said it has a decade worth of intellectual property already tied into its previous work. This includes physical assets and patents. The light laser technology developed for the project, called “Tightbeam,” keeps data intact through the atmosphere and weather and offers connectivity where no supporting infrastructure exists.
The company said that technology alone would “radically improve” satellite communication, Wi-Fi on planes, and cellular connectivity.”
Clyde Hughes, based in Atlantic City, N.J., curates the biggest breaking news of the day from around the United States and the world. He holds a communications degree from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and has studied race reporting at the Poynter Institute. He is a longtime, but often disappointed, fan of the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Astros.
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