By: Peter Zeng
If economic growth is evaluated around the world, it is generally known that India is one of the fastest growing economies GDP-wise. Google has realized this potential and is now starting to expand itself more into India. This expansion by Google is being called the Project Loon Initiative. By increasing the amount of smartphones that are shipped to India, Google is essentially allowing more and more Indian people to utilize smartphones and thus Google’s various app-services (Google Play, Android, Youtube etc…). By introducing this technology to people who previously didn’t care or have need for these services, Google stands to generate a lot of revenue from ads and data plans. Basically, India is a new source of monetary funds.
Naturally, in order for smartphones to be useful, there must be a stable internet connection which is Google’s main objective besides generating revenue. Google is taking this section of its plan very seriously; the first goal is to install Wireless-Fidelity hotspots in over 100 train stations across India in 2016. This will provide everyone who rides rails (over 10 million people) with an internet connection. If this plan is followed through with, then Google would be India’s largest Wi-Fi provider.
Of course not everyone commutes by trains and thus Google will also expand the Project Loon initiative to include over 300,000 villages by building and releasing floating cell towers! These will provide high speed LTE internet (4G) to more remote areas in India. As time passes, more and more companies are realizing India’s potential and Google is certainly not willing to sit out.
