Facebook Solar Drones Aim to Transmit Internet to Just About Everywhere
Facebook's planned drone program competes with Google's Project Loon for global dominance in the race to make the Internet available to all earthlings.
Facebook has bought a design company called Somerset in order to create a solar-powered drone program that will work in synchronicity with “geosynchronous satellites” designed to hover above us at 65,000 feet.
In an effort to bring Internet service to the two-thirds of the world without online access, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is planning on using his drone program to expand Internet.org, a venture created with the stated goal of making the Internet a globally available information resource. (This will also allow Facebook to significantly expand its user base, currently at 1.3 billion.)
Zuckerberg’s drone-powered scheme will also be in direct competition with Google’s Internet balloon program — called Project Loon, no less — which serves the same purpose. According to the BBC, Google released 30 balloons in New Zealand in June.
Meanwhile, Internet.org engineer Yael Maguire weighed in on The Guardian about how Facebook’s drone program works:
“In suburban environments we are looking at a new type of plane architecture that flies at 20,000 metres, at the point where the winds are the lowest. It’s above commercial airlines, it’s even above the weather. They circle around and broadcast internet down but significantly closer than a satellite.”
Invisible infrared laser beams, which can carry large amounts of information at high speeds across space using free-space optical communication technology (FSO), will connect the satellites to each other and to receivers on the surface of the Earth.
Comcast and cellphone providers such as AT&T might also join this space race, but at this point it looks as if the two online giants will battle it out with the help of their corporate-backed flying objects.
— Posted by Donald Kaufman.
WAIT, BEFORE YOU GO…If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what’s really happening and who’s rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn’t have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.
With deep ties to corporate America, South Bend's former mayor has dedicated his campaign to taking down the democratic socialist.
Bernie Sanders aims to empower the working class, and corporate elites will stop at nothing to prevent him from winning the nomination.
Our political press is simply deluding itself if it believes that ownership has no fundamental influence over the content it produces.
The former vice president's list of donors includes company execs. Is it any wonder the network has showered him with favorable coverage?
Hours after entering the 2020 race, the former vice president announces he'll attend a fundraiser hosted by Comcast and Blue Cross execs.
The former vice president has a media image that exudes down-to-earth caring for regular folks. But his record tells a very different story.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.