Apple Enabling Emergency At T Lte In Puerto Rico Using Google S Project Loon Balloons

Apple is working with AT&T and Google parent-company Alphabet to enable emergency LTE in Puerto Rico after the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria last month. TechCrunch reports that Apple is issuing a carrier update this week using the service enable LTE Band 8 support. As 9to5Google reported earlier today, this emergency LTE is enabled by Alphabet’s X division using Project Loon.

Project Loon deploys balloons from Nevada to Puerto Rico where cell towers have been destroyed to restore cellular service to areas without coverage. The deployment is still experimental in nature but should have a real world impact.

TC says the LTE Band 8 support will work on iPhone 5c and later running iOS 10 and later after the carrier settings update is installed (which first requires network access). Apple provided this statement to TC:

Read more about Project Loon on 9to5Google.