The first two Loon balloons, named HBA092 and HBAL125, have arrived in Kenya’s airspace, a week after the operators were cleared by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA).

The balloons are expected to be joined by two others which are set to arrive in the country through Somalia from Seychelles.

According to StratoCat and Flightradar24, the first internet balloon which was launched in Puerto Rico late January is floating toward Ngomeni Settlement in the Eastern part of the country. It was first spotted in Garissa on Monday. The second one also arrived yesterday according to a tweet by StratoCat.

“While ?#HBAL092 (red) spent last hours wandering south of ?#Nairobi, the second balloon of the fleet arrived to ?#Kenya: ?#HBAL125 (blue). It crossed above Somalia from the Indic and now is moving westbound at 64.000 kft of altitude,” the space monitoring website tweeted.

The arrival in the Kenyan space comes just a week following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s announcement confirming the approval given to Alphabet Company, Google’s parent firm, and Telkom to fly the balloons in the country’s air space.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has signed an agreement with Google Loon that allows Loon Balloons to fly over Kenyan airspace carrying 4G base stations with a capacity to provide wider internet coverage, announced the head of state.

Loon is a network of stratospheric balloons designed to bring internet connectivity to rural and remote communities worldwide from aerial wireless networks with up to 4G-LTE speeds.

Users will be required to connect to the balloon network using a special Internet antenna attached to their building to receive a signal which travels from balloon to balloon, then to a ground-based station connected to an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

A single balloon, powered by a solar panel, can provide internet connectivity to a population in an 80km-diameter area expanding Internet connectivity to rural areas, filling coverage gaps, and improving network flexibility in the event of a disaster.

The latest development is aimed at helping Kenya to retain her competitive advantage in ICT and innovation amid the COVID-19 crises while laying the foundation for further expansion once the outbreak is contained.