World Mobile Bets on Africa, Where Alphabet’s Loon Balloons Failed

(Bloomberg) -- World Mobile Group plans to start commercial operations of connecting rural communities in Africa using balloons from June, as it seeks to succeed where Alphabet Inc.'s Loon project failed.

The London-based operator seeks to use a lower-cost model and sees its first project of $250 million in Tanzania able to connect millions of people across the vast East African country. Most of the money will go to buying equipment and paying for spectrum, according to its founder and chief executive officer, Micky Watkins, who said a mass-piloting phase commences this month ahead of the commercial roll-out.

World Mobile said it's banking on its unique approach of deploying a mix of low and high altitude aerial platforms to get more flexibility in providing coverage. Some initiatives with similar objectives have run into headwinds in the past. Google parent Alphabet in January 2021 shut down Loon, a project to beam internet service from high-altitude balloons, after the unit failed to develop a viable business model.

READ: Alphabet Shuts Loon High-Altitude Balloon Internet Moonshot

Using 20-meter-long and four-meter-wide balloons with capacity to provide signals covering a range of about 43.5 miles, World Mobile expects to provide connectivity at a cost 12 times lower than traditional operators.

The network “can be deployed very quickly into rural areas,” Watkins said in an interview. “We have also created an operating system that allows people to control, run and operate this network.”

While announcing the end of its project, Loon said it hadn't found a way to get the costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business. What World Mobile says is doing differently is not to rely only on high-altitude platforms, but also use those nearer to the ground in a hybrid design that will offer greater efficiency.

About 37% of the world's population -- or almost 3 billion people -- have never used the internet, International Communication Union said in November. Most of them live in developing countries.

World Mobile is also moving to expand in East Africa, having begun installing the first 30 to 40 so-called air nodes in Kenya, with commercial operations expected to start next year, according to Watkins.

The company's advisers include Andrew Bartley, who previously served as a chief investment officer at the International Finance Corp. and Charles Njoroge, formerly the head of Kenya's telecommunications regulator. The company's funding efforts, during July to August, helped it raise $42 million from a public and private token sale.