Connectivity from Drones
Look…up in the sky…it’s a bird…it’s a plane….it’s…connectivity!
If you are like most people you have had the experience of losing your Internet connection when traveling to areas where there is a ‘dead zone’. It is frustrating to be sure. Imagine how frustrating it would be if you were living in entire areas of the world that were without coverage.
Enter Facebook and Google to the rescue in an effort to eliminate areas of non connectivity. Facebook just completed its initial testing of its massive (747 size) solar powered done that will, if things work out, beam Internet service all over the planet. Writing for CNN Money, Heather Kelly writes “The drones will be solar powered and use lasers to deliver internet connections receivers on the ground, up to 30 miles in any direction. The connections will be fast, with speeds up to tens of thousands of gigabytes per second”. Facebook envisions a huge fleet of such drones flying at extremely high altitudes beaming connectivity to everyone….and for free!
Google has also put forth similar ideas with a fleet of high altitude balloons with the same mission. According to google.com….”Many of us think of the Internet as a global community. But two-thirds of the world’s population does not yet have Internet access. Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters”.
The idea of free Internet with no dead zones around the planet is something we can all enjoy, here in the US or in the many undeveloped sectors of the world.
Sources
Kelly, H. (2016) Facebook’s giant internet drone nails test flight. Retrieved from the Internet at http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/21/technology/facebook-aquila-drone-successful-flight/index.html?iid=ob_homepage_tech_pool
