Satellite Balloons

Satellites beat balloons in race for flying internet

Ambitious alternatives have bitten the dust.

Last week, Google scrapped its Loon company, set up nine years ago to beam the internet down to rural areas via a network of large balloons but unable to "build a long-term, sustainable business".

And Facebook abandoned Aquila, its flying-internet project using drones, in 2018.

But satellite-based services, such as Elon Musk's Starlink, are taking off - in every sense.

Large, relatively low-flying satellite networks have the potential to bring the internet to rural areas and "notspots" anywhere in the world.