Could your wireless connectivity come from a drone one day? For people living in remote parts of the world, that answer could soon be yes. Facebookrecently announced the next stage in its plan to bring the Web to everyone on the planet.
“In our effort to connect the world with Internet.org, we’ve been working on ways to beam Internet to people from the sky,” Mark Zuckerberg said in his announcement of Facebook’s plans. “Today, 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. Our goal with Internet.org is to make affordable access to basic Internet services available to every person in the world.”
The Internet.org initiative is a partnership between Facebook and telecom firms Samsung, Nokia ,Ericsson and others, to use various systems to bring the Web to the two-thirds of the world’s people who lack it.
(AR Drone Copter flying against blue sky. Photo credit: iStock)
In a video message from Facebook’s Yael Maguire, he disclosed Internet.org’s plan to cover low-density areas with internet via satellites guided by lasers, and to provide suburban areas with internet access through use of solar-powered drone planes that would be aloft for months at a time. According to a Bloomberg report, Facebook purchased Ascenta, the maker of these solar powered drones for $20 million. Its five-member team joins a group of Facebook engineers and technical experts who previously worked at NASA and the National Astronomy Observatory.
To some, this coupling of aerospace and the social media giant is a logical step of technology that’s been developing for generations.
“Solar is a no-brainer,” said Tony Seba, an expert on solar energy and a Stanford University lecturer in entrepreneurship. “Solar panels have been used by NASA for satellites since the 1950s,” he said.
“If you put a satellite in a geocentric environment, it doesn’t need that much power to stay up there,” Seba said. “The Mars Rover landed in 2004 and was expected to last weeks, and it’s still going.”
Deploying a fleet of interconnected drones to provide Internet access around the world is still in the developmental phase, but Facebook isn’t the only one investing in it. Google’s recent purchase of Makani Power, maker of airborne wind turbines, and its Project Loon initiative that aims to bring Internet connectivity to remote areas via high-altitude balloons, have similar goals to Facebook’s.
While launching a fleet of drones or balloons can technically be done, some say refining the communication technology needed to orchestrate it successfully could take time.
“The devil is always in the details,” said Andreas Raptopoulous, CEO of Matternet, a Palo Alto-based aerial drone transportation startup.
Figuring out those details to get Wi-Fi to remote areas could usher in a second wave of aerial drones for other uses, including delivering goods and services to areas where roads are limited or in poor shape. Small unmanned aerial vehicles would make much more sense for these smaller deliveries, and could be several times cheaper to deliver by drone than by conventional means, said Raptopoulous.
By attempting to connect the rest of the world and bridge the digital divide, these high-flying initiatives could unlock the next wave of innovation and just might uncover the next Mark Zuckerberg in the millions of people it connects.
Jonathan Barnes is a journalist and freelance writer who corresponds forENR magazine, and has written thousands of stories for Fortune, Newsday, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Reuters, Pittsburgh Business Times and other publications
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