Telecom operator offers $250m plan for Tanzania

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Google Loon Project Balloon Photographer: Marty Melville/AFP/Getty Images

World Mobile Group plans to use high-altitude airships to connect commercial services in rural African communities starting in June, seeking to succeed where Alphabet's Loon project failed.

The London-based operator uses a lower-cost model and believes its first $250 million project in Tanzania could bring internet service to millions of people in the vast East African country. Most of the funding will be used to buy equipment and pay for spectrum, according to its founder and CEO Micky Watkins, who said a large-scale pilot phase will begin this month ahead of a commercial rollout.

World Mobile said it relied on its unique approach of deploying a mix of low-altitude and high-altitude platforms to allow greater flexibility in providing coverage. In the past, some projects with similar goals have encountered resistance in their implementation. Previously, Google parent company Alphabet shut down Loon, a service that launched the internet from high-altitude balloons, in January 2021 after failing to develop a viable business model.

World Mobile uses 20 x 4 meter wide balloons to provide a signal covering a range of approximately 43.5 miles and is expected to provide connectivity at a cost 12 times lower than traditional operators.

Micky Watkins said in an interview that the network "can be deployed very quickly to rural areas". "We've also created an operating system that allows people to control, run and operate this network."

In announcing the end of its project, Loon said it has yet to find a way to reduce costs to build a long-term, sustainable business. World Mobile differs by relying not only on high-altitude platforms, but on low-altitude platforms that are closer to the ground, providing greater efficiency.

About 37 percent of the world's population, or nearly 3 billion people, have never used the Internet, the International Telecommunication Union said in November. Most of them live in developing countries.

World Mobile is also expanding into East Africa, having begun installing the first 30 to 40 air nodes in Kenya, with commercial operations expected to start next year, according to Micky Watkins.

Advisers to the firm include Andrew Bartley, formerly chief investment officer of the International Finance Corporation, and Charles Njoroge, former head of Kenya's telecom regulator. The firm's fundraising efforts between July and August helped it raise $42 million through public and private placements.