Google spins out new telecom project called Aalyria

Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A Google spinoff is reimagining an idea formed during its earliest history to provide high-speed Internet to remote areas.

The spinoff company called Aalyria was unveiled Monday, made up of some Google employees who worked on the original project, named "Loon," to transfer the technology they developed in that effort for other wireless network uses.

Loon, which was shut down last year, was working on a plan to use balloons to beam Internet to remote areas.

In the long run, Aalyria hopes to eventually reach their original goal of creating fast, long-distance wireless communications, but without the balloons. The company said it has secured an $8.7 million contract with a unit of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Google has a minority stake in the new spinoff and one of its executives includes Vint Cerf, one of the world's foremost Internet pioneers and chief Internet officer at Google.

Aalyria engineers will take software used by the Loon group and turn it into a cloud-based system for managing complex networks that connect things like satellites, planes, and boats with high-speed Internet.

Google has been tight-lipped about Aalyria but released a statement that said Aalyria's mission will be to manage "hyper-fast, ultra-secure, and highly complex communications networks that span land, sea, air, near space, and deep space."

Google said it has a decade worth of intellectual property already tied into it previous work, including physical assets and patents. The light laser technology developed for the project, called "Tightbeam," keeps data intact through the atmosphere and weather and offers connectivity where no supporting infrastructure exists.

The company said that technology alone would "radically improve" satellite communication, Wi-Fi on planes and cellular connectivity."