Focus: HAPS

Alphabet, parent company of Google, is shutting down Loon, its subsidiary dedicated to providing broadband from balloons in the stratosphere. Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth announced the news in a Medium blog post on Jan. 22.  “Loon has been chasing the hardest problem of all in connectivity — the last billion users: The communities in areas...

AeroVironment, Inc. has demonstrated mobile broadband communication in a recent test of Sunglider, a solar-powered High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS). In the Sept. 21 test, the Sunglider broadband communication demonstration linked teams in Tokyo, Spaceport America in New Mexico and Silicon Valley in California using an LTE payload jointly developed by Alphabet’s Loon LLC and HAPSMobile Inc. Using...