Delivering reliable Internet access to a country that has more than 17,000 islands, which are scattered across a vast area of the Indian and Pacific ocean, is a challenge.
Luckily for folks in Indonesia, Google is ready to take on that challenge with its Project Loon, which brings Internet access to remote areas via a network of high-altitude balloons.
Google announced it plans on Wednesday to bring Loon to Indonesia, with tests starting in 2016. According to the company, only about a third of Indonesia's 250 million residents currently has Internet access.
Google plans to use balloons to transmit a signal from areas that are connected to the Internet on the ground and bring it to the country's most remote islands, using balloon-to-balloon communication. The company hopes to bring LTE-speed connectivity to around 100 million people in Indonesia in five years' time.
Testing, testing, 1- 2-3. Project Loon coming to Indonesia soon → https://t.co/k7P3gRto3o pic.twitter.com/vRQCs5ETMp— Google (@google) October 29, 2015
Launched as Google X in 2011, Project Loon uses LTE-capable, fast-inflated balloons that float in the stratosphere, some 12 miles above Earth's surface. Google tested the concept out in New Zealand, California and Brazil, but Indonesia is the project's biggest test yet -- both in terms of the number of people affected and the sheer vastness of the coverage area. Ultimately, Google aims to use Loon to bring Internet access to some 4 billion people who lack it.