Facebook Permanently Shuts Down Its Drone-Powered Internet Project

Social media giant Facebook unveiled 'Aquila', a solar-powered internet drone, in August 2015. However on Wednesday Facebook announced that it has abandoned this project, which was planned to deliver internet in remote areas through solar-powered drones 'Aquila' aircraft also called as a high altitude platform station (HAPS) system.

Facebook held "technical and geographical limitations" responsible for its decision to permanently shutdown its dream of building a gigantic, solar-powered plane to blast internet to underserved communities via laser.

In a news post on the company’s coding sub-site, Facebook’s Yael Maguire announced that “we’ve decided not to design or build our own aircraft any longer, and to close our facility in Bridgewater."

"Of course, HAPS connectivity requires more than just an aircraft. We’ve made important progress on some of the other key parts of the system — including setting new records using millimeter-wave (MMW) technology in air-to-ground and point-to-point communication", added Maguire.

Closing the Aquila facility comes with the loss of 16 jobs specific to the development and maintenance of the aircraft, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.

Facebook however confirmed that although the company has decided to shutdown Aquila, it will continue to support entrepreneurs in programs like Express Wi-Fi — all to help connect the 4 billion people who still do not have access to the Internet.

The Express Wi-Fi project is actually an integral part of Facebook’s much talked about Internet.org mission. Through this mission, the Mark Zuckerberg led company aims to bring internet connectivity across the whole wide world, especially in the rural pockets.

Also Read - Facebook's AI Lab Develops A Bot That Speaks and Reacts Like A Human

In order to make the Express Wifi project a success in India, Facebook is making use of the old cable operator model. Till 2016, Facebook has implemented the model in over a 100 rural villages all across India.

Notably, in 2016 an ET report which quoted Robert Pepper, Facebook’s connectivity public policy director, divulged the fact that the California-based giant was in talks with a number of Indian telcos for the trials of its Aquila drones but then eventually in November 2016, Facebook decided not to bring its unmanned solar-powered drone to the Indian subcontinent.

Moreover, in September 2016, it was unveiled that a team of talented engineers at Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook Connectivity Lab have had successfully developed a new optical technology that helps laser beams to deliver fast Internet access to remote areas all around the globe. The company was working on this for last half a year.

Google's Project SkyBender To Beam 5G Internet From Solar-Powered Drones

According to a report published in one of the world's most renowned newspaper daily, Google, the tech giant, is currently on a secret mission to build and test solar-powered internet drones at a spaceport in New Mexico under a new initiative codenamed Project SkyBender.

The tech rumour mill industry is also bubbling with the rumour that the company is renting out 15,000 square feet of hangar space from Virgin Galactic — business mogul Richard Branson's commercial spaceflight outfit -- at the privately owned Spaceport America located near a town called Consequences or Truth for the initiative.

Project SkyBender is part of the little-known Google Access team, which also includes Project Loon, a plan to deliver wireless internet using unpowered balloons floating through the stratosphere.

A similar sloar-powered Internet drone called 'Aquila' internet drone was demonstrated by Facebook in August last year.

According to reports, the USP of project skybender undertaken by Google, is its cutting-edge millimeter wave technology that has the potential to transmit gigabits of data every second at a speed that is 40 times faster than the modern 4G LTE. Interesting, isn't it?

Millimeter wave technology is being considered as the future of high-speed data transmission technology, so much so that it is being anticipated to become a backbone of 5G mobile networks. Millimeter waves are known to have a much shorter range than the signals of smartphones currently in use. Further, they are also known to get easily disrupted by weather conditions. However, Google and its other counterparts will be able to focus the transmissions to greater distances by making use of a phased array.

Currently, the tech giant is in the midst of testing the technique with the help of a new solar-powered drone called Centaur and other units made by a special division of Google known as Google Titan. The division was formed by Google after it had acquired drone maker Titan Aerospace in the year 2014. According to the report in the national daily, the company would continue testing until July this year in accordance to its deal with the FCC. In addition to all this, Google is footing a bill of $1,000 a day paying Virgin Galactic about to use its hanger, as well as an additional $300,000 to Spaceport America to construct installations with servers, millimeter wave transceivers, and other tech onsite.

Google has passionately in the past discussed about its plans to bring internet access to developing countries. Reportedly, SkyBender is part of Google Access, a division that also houses Project Loon, one of Google's much ambitious air balloon Wi-Fi project aimed at a similar mission of bringing Internet access to the remotest of the remote parts of the world.

Google's Project SkyBender To Beam 5G Internet From Solar-Powered Drones

According to a report published in one of the world's most renowned newspaper daily, Google, the tech giant, is currently on a secret mission to build and test solar-powered internet drones at a spaceport in New Mexico under a new initiative codenamed Project SkyBender.

The tech rumour mill industry is also bubbling with the rumour that the company is renting out 15,000 square feet of hangar space from Virgin Galactic — business mogul Richard Branson's commercial spaceflight outfit -- at the privately owned Spaceport America located near a town called Consequences or Truth for the initiative.

Project SkyBender is part of the little-known Google Access team, which also includes Project Loon, a plan to deliver wireless internet using unpowered balloons floating through the stratosphere.

A similar sloar-powered Internet drone called 'Aquila' internet drone was demonstrated by Facebook in August last year.

According to reports, the USP of project skybender undertaken by Google, is its cutting-edge millimeter wave technology that has the potential to transmit gigabits of data every second at a speed that is 40 times faster than the modern 4G LTE. Interesting, isn't it?

Millimeter wave technology is being considered as the future of high-speed data transmission technology, so much so that it is being anticipated to become a backbone of 5G mobile networks. Millimeter waves are known to have a much shorter range than the signals of smartphones currently in use. Further, they are also known to get easily disrupted by weather conditions. However, Google and its other counterparts will be able to focus the transmissions to greater distances by making use of a phased array.

Currently, the tech giant is in the midst of testing the technique with the help of a new solar-powered drone called Centaur and other units made by a special division of Google known as Google Titan. The division was formed by Google after it had acquired drone maker Titan Aerospace in the year 2014. According to the report in the national daily, the company would continue testing until July this year in accordance to its deal with the FCC. In addition to all this, Google is footing a bill of $1,000 a day paying Virgin Galactic about to use its hanger, as well as an additional $300,000 to Spaceport America to construct installations with servers, millimeter wave transceivers, and other tech onsite.

Google has passionately in the past discussed about its plans to bring internet access to developing countries. Reportedly, SkyBender is part of Google Access, a division that also houses Project Loon, one of Google's much ambitious air balloon Wi-Fi project aimed at a similar mission of bringing Internet access to the remotest of the remote parts of the world.

Google's Internet Balloon Project Facing Roadblocks In India

While Google's CEO Sundar Pichai is waking waves in India with his humane charm and subtle display of intelligence, his company's much ambitious project called the Project Loon is facing a tough time to being able to see the daylight in the country. According to some media reports floating the net, the project is facing strong opposition from at least three of the main Indian ministries, which includes defence, telecom and civil.

Project Loon is a balloon-based project, which aims to provide internet access to all in the country.

Apparently, Project Loon is also on Pichai's agenda of discussion when he meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this week. The two had first discussed the project during Modi's much talked about Silicon Valley visit in the month of September. According to some sources, the Prime Minister’s Office is directly monitoring the progress of Project Loon.

Through this project, the Internet giant's mission is to provide internet access to rural and remote areas in the country. The project will be making use of high-altitude balloons, some 18 km from the ground, to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G-LTE speeds transmitting as far as 40 kms in diameter.

Project Loon is most likely a short for loony since the company itself came up with an idea to provide internet services to 5 billion population.

To those, still skeptical about its working, Project Loon balloons will basically float in the stratosphere layer on a height twice as high as the weather balloons and aeroplanes.

[caption id="attachment_102812" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Loon uses high-altitude balloons, 18 km from the ground, to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G-LTE speeds transmitting as far as 40 kilometers in diameter [/caption]

According to the company, the balloons involved in Project can go anywhere they need to by descending or rising into a stratum of air, blowing in the desired direction of traveling.

According to the company, the balloons involved in Project can go anywhere they need to by descending or rising into a stratum of air, blowing in the desired direction of traveling.

The project is facing opposition from the ministers because they are concerned that the balloons may interfere with flight paths. That's why the Civil aviation is in the favour of these balloons been monitored via the Air Traffic Control in order to avoid accidents. On the other hand, the home ministry is concerned that the balloons might get used for surveillance creating a safety issue for the entire country.

Whether the Project is able to see the light of the day, is something which we will have to wait and closely watch.