The satellite veteran who has been the chief executive of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Project Loon has resigned after half a year at the helm. His position has been taken up by Alastair Westgarth, former head of Quintel.
“Alastair’s vision for Project Loon aligns with X’s philosophy of approaching huge problems, at scale, to improve the lives of millions or billions of people,” a Project Loon spokesperson said.
Viable business
Westgarth was formerly the head of Quintel, a wireless antenna company. Prior to Tom Moore joining Project Loon, Michael Cassidy was the chief executive before also stepping down. When Moore was hired, his goal was to transform Project Loon into a viable business. This was also the rationale behind the formation of a holding company which would allow experimental projects at Google and avenues for their own sources of revenue.
Some of Moore’s industry experience included starting WildBlue Communications Inc, a broadband service provider that was satellite-based. The company was later purchased by ViaSat, Inc. (NASDAQ:VSAT), a satellite firm, where Moore went on to serve as a senior VP.
Scaling back
The changes at Project Loon come in the wake of Google scaling back on plans to develop an ambitious global service which would have seen high-altitude balloons circling the planet providing internet to areas with poor coverage. The testing of Project Loon balloons began in 2013 with the firm partnering with wireless operators such as South America’s Telefonica SA and New Zealand’s Vodafone. Two years later, Project Loon made announcements concerning partnerships that had been formed with carriers based in Indonesia.
Earlier in February, journalists were invited to Loon headquarters to witness strides and developments the firm had made. This included the deployment of machine learning to the balloons with a view to improving their flight patterns and which also helped to cut down on the numbers required to offer internet coverage. With the new developments, it was now possible to launch a reduced balloon number over specific areas and thereby accelerating the path of the project towards commercial viability.
On Friday shares of Alphabet Inc rose by 0.54% to close the day at $843.25 a share.