On October 6, 2017, Google filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and cleared it the same day, with authorization to start immediately to provide emergency LTE coverage to Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The plan allows 30 balloons to relay communication between ground terminals connected to people's handsets. Google will have to install Over The Air (OTA) updates to allow Band 8 operations and at the end of the authorization, a separate OTA update will disable this operation. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced at a press conference on October 8, 2017 the launch of Google's Loon Project on the Caribbean island, following its approval by the FCC.