Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando last week confirmed that Google was exploring ‘other options’ to pilot and implement Project Loon as there have been certain inefficiencies recently in relation to getting the required spectrum for the trials. The delay in the Loon project is the contaoversy with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) regarding the 700MHz sepectrum. Project Loon is an innovation spearheaded by Google and is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to extend internet connectivity to people of a given country. He said that Rama Co will own the Loons under ‘Project Rama’. Innovation was never in our DNA but then Google Loon came along and we were excited about it.”Setting the record straight however, Fernando said that Project Loon was not yet another ‘Volkswagen Story’ – implying that Google has so far been on the same page as the government and ICTA.

Source: The Nation February 17, 2017 20:26 UTC