Andhra Pradesh partners with Google X to provide wireless internet
In a major step to bolster wireless connectivity, Andhra Pradesh has partnered with Google X to provide high-speed internet across the state. Google X will soon set up a development centre in Visakhapatnam, its first outside the US. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in the presence of state IT minister Nara Lokesh and Google X CEO Astro Teller in San Francisco on Thursday.
Google X tweets confirming its tie-up with Andhra government
13 Andhra districts to have internet access by March 2019
Andhra Pradesh will buy Google X's breakthrough Free Space Optical Communication Technology (FSOC) to strengthen its supply service to cellphone towers and Wi-Fi hotspots. Google X will install 2,000 FSOC links on select points to facilitate fast, interruption-free internet connection in populated areas. The project is likely to provide internet access to 12 million households and 1,30,000 enterprises in 13 districts by March 2019.
What is Google X?
Founded in January 2010, X is Google's moonshot research-and-development wing. It aims to invent and launch radically breakthrough technologies for a better world. It is best known for developing driverless car Waymo, and providing internet through balloons in rural areas with a low population density via its Project Loon. The agreement between Andhra Pradesh and Google X is an outgrowth of Project Loon.
