A still image from a promotional video
showing how Facebook and Internet.org
will deliver internet access via aerial drone.
Image: Internet.org
Facebook’s flying-internet efforts mirror a
similar project that’s underway at Google.
The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is
putting together a lab where a team of
Facebook engineers will build flying drones,
satellites, and infrared lasers capable of
beaming internet connections to people.
Mr. Zuckerberg on Thursday revealed the
project to be known as the Facebook
Connectivity Lab.
According to Mr. Zuckerberg, the lab’s
engineering staff already spans “many of
the world’s leading experts in aerospace
and communications technology,” including
researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab,
NASA’s Ames Research Center, and the
National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
The company is also now adding engineers
from a British company called Ascenta, an
outfit that helped create the world’s longest
solar-powered unmanned aircraft.
All this may seem like a stretch for a social
networking company. But it’s a necessary
part of Mr. Zuckerberg’s efforts to bring the
internet to the vast parts of the world that
still don’t have it, an effort known as
Internet.org. This appears to make sense for
a company whose continued expansion
depends on the continued expansion of the
internet.
Facebook’s flying-internet efforts mirror asimilar project that’s underway at Google.
Known as Project Loon, it seeks to provide
internet access to the hinterlands through
high-altitude balloons. Like Facebook,
Google stands to benefit in big ways if the
internet expands. The original services built
by these two web giants are now used by
enormous swaths of the online population,
and eventually, the companies must push
into an entirely new audience. As public
companies, they’re under enormous
pressure to continue the growth of their
businesses — in perpetuity. In addition to
Loon, Google is looking to expand the reach
of high-speed internet landlines through a
service called Google Fiber.
According to a post on Internet.org, the new
Facebooklab is exploring the possibility of
using solar-powered high-altitude planes to
provide internet access in suburban areas.
These could “stay aloft for months, be
quickly deployed and deliver reliable internet
connections,” the site says. Then, for more
remote areas, the lab is looking towards
low-orbiting satellites. In both cases, it aims
to beam internet access to the people using
what’s called free-space optical
communication, or FSO. Basically, this is a
way of transmitting data through infrared
lasers.
Facebook’s announcement came two days
after the company acquired a startup called
Oculus, saying it would use the startup’s
gaming headset as a way of moving its
social network into the world of virtual
reality. Compared to that, the Connectivity
Lab is a rather straightforward business
move. On Tuesday, while discussing the
Oculus buy, Mr. Zuckerberg painted both
projects as platforms that represent not the
near future of Facebook, but the distant
future.
showing how Facebook and Internet.org
will deliver internet access via aerial drone.
Image: Internet.org
Facebook’s flying-internet efforts mirror a
similar project that’s underway at Google.
The Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is
putting together a lab where a team of
Facebook engineers will build flying drones,
satellites, and infrared lasers capable of
beaming internet connections to people.
Mr. Zuckerberg on Thursday revealed the
project to be known as the Facebook
Connectivity Lab.
According to Mr. Zuckerberg, the lab’s
engineering staff already spans “many of
the world’s leading experts in aerospace
and communications technology,” including
researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab,
NASA’s Ames Research Center, and the
National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
The company is also now adding engineers
from a British company called Ascenta, an
outfit that helped create the world’s longest
solar-powered unmanned aircraft.
All this may seem like a stretch for a social
networking company. But it’s a necessary
part of Mr. Zuckerberg’s efforts to bring the
internet to the vast parts of the world that
still don’t have it, an effort known as
Internet.org. This appears to make sense for
a company whose continued expansion
depends on the continued expansion of the
internet.
Facebook’s flying-internet efforts mirror asimilar project that’s underway at Google.
Known as Project Loon, it seeks to provide
internet access to the hinterlands through
high-altitude balloons. Like Facebook,
Google stands to benefit in big ways if the
internet expands. The original services built
by these two web giants are now used by
enormous swaths of the online population,
and eventually, the companies must push
into an entirely new audience. As public
companies, they’re under enormous
pressure to continue the growth of their
businesses — in perpetuity. In addition to
Loon, Google is looking to expand the reach
of high-speed internet landlines through a
service called Google Fiber.
According to a post on Internet.org, the new
Facebooklab is exploring the possibility of
using solar-powered high-altitude planes to
provide internet access in suburban areas.
These could “stay aloft for months, be
quickly deployed and deliver reliable internet
connections,” the site says. Then, for more
remote areas, the lab is looking towards
low-orbiting satellites. In both cases, it aims
to beam internet access to the people using
what’s called free-space optical
communication, or FSO. Basically, this is a
way of transmitting data through infrared
lasers.
Facebook’s announcement came two days
after the company acquired a startup called
Oculus, saying it would use the startup’s
gaming headset as a way of moving its
social network into the world of virtual
reality. Compared to that, the Connectivity
Lab is a rather straightforward business
move. On Tuesday, while discussing the
Oculus buy, Mr. Zuckerberg painted both
projects as platforms that represent not the
near future of Facebook, but the distant
future.
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