Facebook drones will bring the internet to everyone
Facebook has announced its plan to take the internet to everyone using drones, satellites and lasers via its Internet.org project.
The Facebook Connectivity Lab is responsible for building lasers, satellites and the solar powered drones that can deliver the internet to those who are not yet connected.
“We’re sharing some details of the work Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone,” said Facebook CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg in a statement. “Our goal with Internet.org is to make affordable access to basic internet services available to every person in the world.”
Only around a couple billion of the world’s population have internet access, so the Facebook Connectivity Lab project is definitely worthwhile, especially with a worldwide population of around 7.1 billion.
Government censorship sometimes means even those with internet access will have their content controlled and monitored by the authorities.
Turkey has become the latest victim of this government censorship, with access to Twitter and YouTube blocked in recent weeks.
Facebook has already brought internet access to 3 million people over the last year, thanks to its work in Paraguay and the Philippines alone to double the number of users with access to mobile data.
“Our team has many of the world’s leading experts in aerospace and communications technology, including from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Ames Research Centre. Today we are also bringing on key memebers of the team from Ascenta, a small UK-based company whose founders created early versions of Zephyr, which became the world’s longest flying solar-powered unmanned aircraft.”
The latest additions to Facebook’s Internet.org team make total sense with the social media giant’s plans to deliver the internet via solar-powered drones from 60,000 feet up.
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