Facebook builds drone for internet access

Facebook has built its own drone that will bring internet
connectivity to remote parts of the world, the social
network has announced.
The drone - which has a wingspan of a Boeing 737 - will
operate as high as 90,000 feet in the air, and can stay
airborne for 90 days at a time.
Facebook said the drones would be able to offer internet
speeds of 10 gigabits a second.
They will be tested in the US later this year.
It was designed in the UK by Facebook's aerospace
team, said Jay Parikh, Facebook's vice president of
global engineering and infrastructure.
"Our goal is to accelerate the development of a new set
of technologies that can drastically change the
economics of deploying internet infrastructure," Mr
Parikh said.
"We are exploring a number of different approaches to
this challenge, including aircraft, satellites and
terrestrial solutions.
"Our intention is not to build networks and then operate
them ourselves, but rather to quickly advance the state
of these technologies to the point that they become
viable solutions for operators and other partners to
deploy."
Laser
It is the social network's latest initiative in its
Internet.org scheme, a project designed to bring
connectivity to the developing world.
The strategy will help the network continue to grow
users, a key requirement of keeping investors happy.
Mr Parikh said the drone's technology should be
regarded as a "significant breakthrough".
"They've designed and lab-tested a laser that can
deliver data at 10s of Gb per second - approximately 10x
faster than the previous state-of-the-art in the industry
- to a target the size of a dime from more than 10 miles
away.
"We are now starting to test these lasers in real-world
conditions.
"When finished, our laser communications system can be
used to connect our aircraft with each other and with
the ground, making it possible to create a stratospheric
network that can extend to even the remotest regions of
the world."
However, Facebook's expansion beyond its current
markets has raised eyebrows, and accusations of cynical
intentions.
Internet.org angered many in India's technology
community when it launched there, offering free mobile
access to a small handful of sites, but not the internet
as a whole.
Internet companies in the country said it was giving
those free services an unfair advantage in the market,
and noted that Facebook is able to track what users on
the free service were doing.