Alphabet Joins With Vodacom to Bring Loon Internet to Mozambique

(Bloomberg) --

Alphabet Inc.’s Loon division signed an agreement with Vodacom Group Ltd to bring internet services to some of the most remote parts of the southeast African nation of Mozambique.

Loon provides internet access to rural areas through a network of high-flying balloons linked to land-based operations overseen by a regional partner. In the coming months the companies will start the buildout, test the balloons and launch the service, a spokesman for Loon said in an email.

Vodacom, based in Johannesburg, is Africa’s largest wireless carrier by value and has ambitions to expand beyond the six nations where it already operates. Loon’s balloon network is already available in Kenya, and the companies have received regulatory approval to build in Mozambique, Alastair Westgarth, chief executive officer of Loon, said in an emailed statement.

Bringing fast, widespread internet to remote areas of Africa with satellites, mobile phone towers, and fiber has proven challenging for local operators. Vodacom, a unit of Britain’s Vodafone Group Plc, would like to expand the arrangement with Loon. A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the value of the contract.

“This is even more pertinent in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, where more Mozambicans will now have access to health-care information through our Loon partnership,” Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub said via email. “We look forward to forging similar partnerships and projects across the continent.”

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