Loon nabs partnership with AT&T, but not necessarily revenues

Loon – the Internet-from-balloons provider that sprung from Google’s R&D labs – announced a new partnership with AT&T. The companies’ agreement essentially paves the way for Loon to deploy its balloons more quickly for AT&T or other operators around the world.

“Under the partnership, we have successfully integrated the Loon system with AT&T’s network. This is a big deal because this network integration will extend to AT&T’s partners around the world, meaning Loon will be able to provide service to a third-party mobile operator, assuming they have a standard international roaming relationship with AT&T,” explained Alastair Westgarth, CEO of Loon, in a recent post. “While coordination with a local operator will be crucial, Loon’s ability to leverage the AT&T network vastly expands the number of operators around the world that Loon can work with without having to complete time-intensive network integration for each one. In a disaster scenario, this will save valuable time and enable Loon to simultaneously serve several, if not all, the mobile operators in a market.”

However, the agreement doesn’t necessarily mean AT&T plans to purchase Loon’s services. It will only make it easier for AT&T or any of AT&T’s international roaming partners to purchase Loon’s services.

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