India may be the world’s second most populous country in the world as well as one of the top countries for business process outsourcing, but 68% of its population are in rural areas and probably have no access to Internet. Google wants to help solve that problem as they are now in negotiations with the country’s telecommunication firms and the government as well to bring Project Loon to the South Asian country in order to provide WiFi connection to those hard to reach areas.
Project Loon is part of Google’s mission to bring Internet access to every corner of the world. It is made up of high altitude balloons that are beaming down high speed Internet connection that can be accessed by those in the area. Google’s Managing Director for India, Rajan Anandan, said that they are now talking to several local telcos because in order for this to work, the Internet service would have to be provided by one of them. He also said that the Indian government seem to be very supportive of this “infrastructure in the sky.”
Google is not actually the first tech company to have offered Internet to India’s rural areas. Facebook wanted the country to have Free Basics, a plan that offers free Internet to selected websites and apps, including the social network itself. However, India’s regulators said that this violated Net Neutrality and offered unfair market advantages since all sites should be made equally available, and this service did not do that.
Since Google will make all things on the Internet accessible in Project Loon, then there shouldn’t be any problem with the government. What is not known for now is whether the Internet will be free. But if it’s based on its goal to bring Internet access to all parts of the world, then it should be, or at least have a very minimal fee. They have pioneered this service in New Zealand and then eventually to Brazil and the US.
