Facebook to test drone `Aquila’ for internet access in remote areas
01 Aug 2015
Facebook has revealed its first full-scale drone, which would be used to provide internet access in remote parts of the world. The solar-powered drone, code-named ''Aquila,'' would be able to stay up in the air for three months at a stretch, sending data to a base station on the ground using a laser.
The company planned to use a linked network of drones to provide internet access to large rural areas. However, as with its Internet.org project, Facebook would not be dealing with customers directly, rather it would use local ISPs to offer the service.
Jay Parikh, Facebook's vice-president of engineering, said: ''Our mission is to connect everybody in the world. This is going to be a great opportunity for us to motivate the industry to move faster on this technology.''
The social network said it would test the aircraft, which has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, in the US later this year.
According to Yael Maguire, the company's engineering director of connectivity, the plane would operate between 60,000ft (18km) and 90,000ft (27km) - above the altitude of commercial airplanes - so it would not be affected by weather.
The plane would fly at the maximum altitude during the day, before gliding slowly down to its lowest level to conserve power when its solar panels were not receiving charge.
The sun-powered Aquila drone was built over 14 months ago and it would be in the air for 90 days at a time. It would be launched with helium balloons to be able to achieve its altitude. The Aquila programme was tested in The UK in March, and was expected to increase the internet speed and provide access to about 10 per cent of the population who did not have connections, and who were far from landlines and cell towers.
The social network's Internet.org initiative was targeted by activists for providing users with a limited version of the web. Internet.org customers who accessed the internet for free, would only have access to selected services like weather, job listing, Facebook and Wikipedia.