Loon's balloon-powered internet service is live in Kenya

A bit later than expected, Loon has finally launched its balloon-powered 4G internet service in Kenya. Through a partnership with Telkom Kenya, the balloons have served 35,000 customers and are covering about 50,000 square kilometres. Loon has been used to make voice and video calls, browse the web, email, text, access WhatsApp and stream YouTube. Loon plans to use a fleet of about 35 balloons in Kenya, and it describes the system as a "carefully choreographed and orchestrated balloon dance." At any given time, a balloon might be actively serving users, operating as a link in the mesh network to beam internet to other vehicles or repositioning itself via machine learning algorithms.