VOA慢速英语--谷歌将在肯尼亚农村推出气球互联网系统

Google to Launch Balloon Internet System in Rural Kenya

A Google-backed project to bring internet connectivity to rural areas around the world is set to launch its first service in Kenya.

The project is led by Loon¹, which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Large balloons carry solar-powered equipment high in the sky to send high-speed internet signals to the ground.

Loon officials told the Reuters news service that its balloons are expected to reach Kenya in the coming weeks.

Loon began testing the system in 2011, but this is the company’s first market test.

The project involves Telkom Kenya, the country’s third-largest telecommunications company. The service will sell 4G internet service to people living in a rural, mountainous area. Kenyan transportation officials said they expect to give final approval to the project this month.

Loon aims to bring high-speed internet connectivity to places where populations are “unserved or underserved.” The sky-based system can deploy² to areas where there are too few people to support the building of signal equipment on the ground.

The balloons that lift the equipment are about 24 meters tall and eight meters wide, Loon says in a description on its website. It is made of a plastic material that is built to last at least 100 days.

The balloons are filled with gas that is lighter³ than air and rise up to 20 kilometers into the sky – a height twice as high as airplanes fly. This helps the balloons avoid weather problems and wildlife.

Loon balloons move through the skies by wind currents that carry them up and down during the flight path. They are designed to link up with a team of balloons over areas lacking internet connectivity.

Stations on the ground send signals from local internet service providers up to the balloons. These signals are then fed back to earth in a similar way to how satellites work. People on the ground can then connect to the high-speed internet service.

Loon says solar collectors power the equipment during the day and charge a battery to run the system at night. When the life of the balloon ends, a parachute self-deploys to guide it back down to the ground.

The sky-based system already showed success in temporary service launches in Peru and Puerto Rico during natural disasters.

Loon says its balloons were operational in 48 hours in May after a powerful earthquake struck a rural part of Peru. In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, Loon balloons were deployed⁴ after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. In both cases, the equipment was provided for free to make up for internet signals that had been cut.

Alastair Westgarth heads Loon. He says that, in addition to Telkom Kenya, several other telecommunications companies are close to signing deals with the company. He did not provide details.

Officials at several wireless⁵ carriers told Reuters they are still exploring the possibilities of working with Loon.

Hervé Suquet is head of technology and information for Orange Middle East and Africa. He said Loon first needs to prove itself in Kenya. “If the results are positive, we would then be potentially interested,” he said in a statement.

Kuwait-based carrier Zain Group said it, too, is watching the Kenyan trial closely before making a decision on Loon.

I’m Bryan Lynn.

Words in This Story

battery – n.device that produces and can store electricity

potentially – adv.the possibility of happening in the future

1 loon   

n.狂人

参考例句：

• That guy's a real loon.那个人是个真正的疯子。
• Everyone thought he was a loon.每个人都骂他神经。

2 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

3 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

4 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

5 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。