Alphabet hires new leader for Google’s Project Loon

Bloomberg

Project Loon, Google’s high-profile effort
to put broadband-emitting balloons into
the stratosphere over remote parts of the world, is getting a new leader with practical industry experience.
X, the research division of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., said it hired Tom Moore, co-founder of satellite-based
broadband service provider WildBlue Communications Inc. He starts as a vice president at X and general manager of Project Loon in mid-September.
Mike Cassidy, a well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has run Loon since early 2012, will remain at the company’s X lab to develop new research projects.
The balloon effort at Google has been one of the few to show continued progress inside X, the research lab responsible for the poorly reviewed internet-connected spectacles, Glass, and Google’s driverless car division, which has recently suffered from the departure of several leaders.
X has been testing its balloons around the world since 2013, partnering with wireless operators like Vodafone NZ in New Zealand, Telstra in Australia and Telefonica in South America to provide internet access in rural and mountainous areas that aren’t served by traditional terrestrial networks.
The move to bring in an industry veteran with commercial experience mirrors other efforts at Alphabet to turn ambitious, risky research projects into profitable businesses. Last year, the company hired John Krafcik, the former head of Hyundai Motor America, to lead its car project into that next stage. Verily, a health care research project, has signed commercial partnership deals with big companies in that industry. Google Fiber, which spent years burying high-speed fiber-optic internet cables beneath Kansas City and other U.S. cities, recently shifted to deploy its service with cheaper wireless technology.
“Tom’s valuable industry experience will help launch us into the commercial stage,” Astro Teller, head of X, said in a statement. “We’re looking forward to working with telcos around the world to integrate Loon with their networks.”
Moore co-founded WildBlue in 1998 to use satellites to serve consumers and small businesses without access to land-based internet services. In 2009, it was acquired by satellite communications provider ViaSat Inc., where Moore has since worked as a senior vice president overseeing consumer, enterprise and mobility businesses as well as mergers and acquisitions and strategic initiatives.
That business experience will be needed at Loon, which faces big challenges. Providing internet connectivity to rural and developing markets may mean fewer customers, or customers with less money to spend on such services. And wireless carriers were initially cautious about working with Loon because they saw it as a potential rival.
Moore was traveling and could not be reached for comment. In a statement, he said, “Billions of people still lack affordable, reliable access to the educational, cultural, and economic opportunities of the Internet, largely due to the costs and challenges of connecting rural and remote parts of the globe. The world needs fresh approaches like Project Loon, which can help overcome terrestrial obstacles like mountains and jungles, and has made far more progress than anyone would have expected.”