AT&T will use Google's Project Loon balloons to bring LTE to Puerto Rico

These months are being a mess as far as meteorology is concerned. In recent weeks, several hurricanes have hit the Caribbean, causing significant damage to several islands and important regions of America. One of them was Mary, a tropical cyclone that devastated the island of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, destroying everything in its path.

The telecommunications towers that offered users LTE coverage and connection were damaged. Manzana will release a special carrier update in the coming days. With this update, iPhones will be able to connect to the network offered by Google's Project Loon balloons thanks to the collaboration of Alphabet and the operator AT&T.

Apple, AT&T and Alphabet: together against the devastation of Hurricane Maria

The media outlet TechCrunch has reported that Apple will offer a provider update that will allow the terminals connect to the LTE Band 8, an emergency LTE connection enabled by the X division of Alphabet (the Google company) thanks to its well-known hot air balloons that will be found in the skies of the Island of Puerto Rico.

We are not talking only about the iPhone, but the rest of the phones they have not been equipped to connect to these types of networks. In the case of iPhones, they will only receive the update from the iPhone 5c to the newer models with iOS 10 or higher. The problem with the LTE Band 8 is in the range of frequencies in which it is emitted and the range of frequencies that mobile devices can detect, that is why Most of the terminals of other companies will not be able to access this emergency connection.

On the other hand, we already have official confirmation from Apple on this issue and on the need to help the people of the Island of Puerto Rico:

Estamos trabajando con AT&T para activar el servicio celular para usuarios de iPhone en Puerto Rico a medida que la isla se recupera del huracán María. Los ingenieros de Apple han creado una actualización de configuración de operador especial que los usuarios conectados a Wi-Fi o conectados a una red celular se les pedirá que descarguen automáticamente durante la semana. La actualización permite a los clientes de iPhone con iPhone 5c y modelos posteriores con iOS 10 o superior conectarse a una banda provisional en la red de AT&T para que puedan estar en contacto con sus seres queridos y obtener servicios en este momento de necesidad.