Facebook finishes building drone for remote internet access
Social media giant Facebook announced the completion of its first full-scale drone, intended to provide internet access in remote parts of the world.
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The drone was designed by a team in the UK by Facebook's aerospace team, the company's vice president of global engineering and infrastructure Jay Parikh said.
It is part of the Aquila programme, through which the social media giant plans to work with carriers around the world to equip them with the solar-powered and laser-connected drones. They will be sold to 10% of the population in remote areas out of reach of an existing mobile network.
The move aims to help the company continue to grow users.
The drone will operate as high as 90,000 feet in the air, above the altitude of commercial airplanes, so it would not be affected by weather, and will offer connection speeds of 10 gigabites a second.
"Our goal is to accelerate the development of a new set of technologies that can drastically change the economics of deploying internet infrastructure," Parikh said.
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