Facebook Counters Google’s Project Loon by Building Drone

Facebook revealed that it is ready to begin test flights of its high-altitude drone designed to provide Internet access to rural & remote regions of the world.

The Aquila drone, as it’s called, has a wingspan almost the same size of a Boeing 737 airliner. It weighs less than a hatchback, and can remain in flight for more than three months. The drone will beam Internet service to the ground from altitudes ranging from 18,000 to 27,000 meters.

According to Yael Maguire, engineering director of the Aquila project, the team had "achieved a significant milestone" with laser communications for high-speed data connections which are said to be faster than most current internet providers.

"Our goal is to accelerate the development of a new set of technologies that can drastically change the economics of deploying Internet infrastructure. We are exploring a number of different approaches to this challenge, including aircraft, satellites and terrestrial solutions” said Jay Parikh, Facebook VP of global engineering and infrastructure.

Facebook claims their goal is to provide the technology to its partners, rather than the company being a sole internet provider. Using lasers to provide Internet connections are the work of a project devoted to finding ways to provide online access to the billions of people in the world who don't yet have it, or are in regions which are inaccessible by most ISPs.

"A full-scale version of Aquila -- the high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft designed by our aerospace team in the UK -- is now complete and ready for flight testing," Parikh said.

"When finished, our laser communications system can be used to connect our aircraft with each other and with the ground, making it possible to create a stratospheric network that can extend to even the remotest regions of the world," Parikh said.

This project countered Google’s Project Loon, which aims to send weather balloons into the stratosphere to provide internet to remote regions of the earth.

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