“We’ve successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second”, he said. But Aquila is designed to provide full broadband Internet.
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Aquila is a high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft with a wingspan of a Boeing 737 aircraft, but drastically lighter.
Although Facebook does not immediately face policy or legal hurdles in testing its drone in the US, Maguire said, it was the first company to fly at such altitudes and had a team working with policymakers to help set guidelines.
Facebook has finished building a solar-powered drone that it says will bring internet access to remote parts of the world.
Engineers at the giant social network say they have built a drone with a 140-foot wingspan that weighs less than 1,000 pounds. Aquila will have the ability to send internet signals to users below from up in the sky.
Yael was talking to the fourth estate and said that there are some moving parts that need to work in unison. Google is experimenting with high-altitude balloons as well as drones and satellites. Microsoft is also financing a project that envisages transmitting internet signals over unused television airwaves.
Another related project from Facebook is looking at providing free limited mobile Internet service to people in poor countries. But 10 percent of the world’s population lives in remote locations with no internet infrastructure, and the kinds of infrastructure technologies used everywhere else – things like fiber-optic cable, microwave repeaters and cell towers – may be a challenge to deploy cost-effectively in these regions. Facebook has already tested a version of Aquila in the UK, but this was not a full-scale machine. Facebook will have lasers on the ground that can locate the dome-shaped optical head, located on the bottom of the plane, in the air? basically shooting a laser at a dime-sized target that is more than 10 miles away, tech portal The Verge reported. They will also operate in the 60,000 and 90,000 feet range.
Facebook is not alone in its efforts to bring Internet to the 4 billion unconnected humans on Earth.
Although Facebook does not immediately face policy or legal hurdles in testing its drone in the United States, Maguire said, it is the first company to fly at such altitudes.
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Facebook was planning to make a internet beaming plane for delivering flying internet connectivity for developing world, but now it looks that finally they have achieved its goal.
