Puerto Ricans are getting a lift in their cell phone communications and access to the Internet through their cell phones thanks to balloons from Google parent company, Alphabet.
The Project Loon balloons carry devices that beam signals from one to another, extending communications networks to places where the infrastructure is damaged or still down.
This allows hurricane-stricken residents with LTE phones send and receive text messages and access the Internet. While this is helpful, still many in Puerto Rico are still without electricity and 25% lack potable drinking water.
The head of Project Loon, Alastair
Westgarth, said, "This is the first time we have used our new machine
learning-powered algorithms to keep balloons clustered over Puerto Rico, so
we're still learning how best to do this."
The balloons were used earlier this year in Peru after serious flooding there.
