--- description: Find out why Loon is one of the best inventions of 2020. title: Loon: The 100 Best Inventions of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c965200b9763b42/698a143e0116823199980092/best-inventions-of-2020-Loon-6.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 19, 2020 # 4G Fleet Loon by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Courtesy Originally a Google “moonshot” project conceived in 2011, Alphabet subsidiary [Loon](https://loon.com/ "undefined") aims to extend Internet access to underserved locales by deploying a network of giant stratospheric balloons. Those balloons—each the size of a tennis court—previously floated above Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria and above Peru after the 2019 earthquake. But this summer marked the project’s first commercial deployment. In partnership with local provider Telkom Kenya, Loon’s network of dozens of balloons now beam 4G Internet across more than 30,000 sq. mi. of central and western Kenya—­making web browsing, email and text more accessible to those below. _—Joseph Hincks_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911415/loon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911415/loon/"},"headline":"4G Fleet","datePublished":"2020-11-19T13:51:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:46:02.766Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911415/loon/","keywords":["list","franchise","best inventions","Best Inventions 2020"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c965200b9763b42/698a143e0116823199980092/best-inventions-of-2020-Loon-6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c965200b9763b42/698a143e0116823199980092/best-inventions-of-2020-Loon-6.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/best-inventions-2020/5911415/loon/","name":"4G Fleet"}}]}] ```