The entire island country of Sri Lanka could soon get free Internet beamed down from Google Loon balloons, and it might not have happened without one of the co-owners of the Golden State Warriors.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Google Loon executive Mike Cassidy met Tuesday in Colombo, the capital, to sign a memorandum of understanding to test the experimental Internet balloon technology, which means the talks are in the early stages and are not a final deal to provide nationwide service.
But effusive Sri Lankan officials were quick to celebrate how the historic partnership could help connect the small South Asian country that is still recovering from a decades-long civil war that ended in 2009.
“As a result of the agreement we will sign today with Google, the entire Sri Lankan island – every village from Dondra to Point Pedro – will be covered with affordable high speed internet using Google Loon’s balloon technology, and Sri Lanka is on its way to becoming the very first country in the world to have network connectivity cover the entire country,” said Mangala Samaraweera, the country’s foreign minister and IT chief, according to a transcript of his address.