Turning on Project Loon in Puerto Rico 
 
 Last month, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane and caused significant damage to the island’s connectivity infrastructure. Working with AT&T, Project Loon is now supporting basic communication and internet activities like sending text messages and accessing information online for some people with LTE enabled phones. Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post that Project Loon is "still an experimental technology and we're not quite sure how well it will work," though it has been tested since last year in Peru following flooding there.  This Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017 photo provided by Project Loon shows a stratospheric balloon being prepared for launch from the project site in Winnemucca, Nev. Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday... (Associated Press) 
 
 This Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2017 photo provided by Project Loon shows a stratospheric balloon being prepared for launch from the project site in Winnemucca, Nev. Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where... (Associated Press) 
 
 MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Google's parent Alphabet Inc. said Friday that its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria.
– Google's parent Alphabet Inc. says its stratospheric balloons are now delivering the Internet to remote areas of Puerto Rico where cellphone towers were knocked out by Hurricane Maria. Two of the search giant's "Project Loon" balloons are already over the country enabling texts, emails, and basic web access to AT&T customers with handsets that use its 4G LTE network, the AP reports. The balloons—called HBAL199 and HBAL237—are more than 60,000 feet above land, according to FlightRadar24.com. They navigate using an algorithm that puts them in the best position to deliver signal by rising and falling to ride wind currents. They are also solar-powered and only provide signal during the day Several more balloons are on their way from Nevada, and Alphabet has been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to send up to 30 balloons to serve hard-hit areas, according to Libby Leahy, spokeswoman for Alphabet's X, its division for futuristic technologies. Project Loon head Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post that Project Loon is "still an experimental technology and we're not quite sure how well it will work," though it has been tested since last year in Peru following flooding there. Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory of 3.4 million people last month. Less than a fifth of the island has electricity, and half its cellphone towers are still not functioning,