Google and Facebook are working hard to connect the world. Their internet.org and Loon projects, that once seemed like a harebrained schemes, took another step forward, yesterday towards providing Internet connectivity to the remaining 60% of the world’s population.
One looks like a sate-of the-art stealth bomber, the other looks like a balloon that belongs to the Wizard of OZ, both projects are pretty awesome – solar-powered autonomous devices that provide Internet, and can stay afloat high in the atmosphere for months, if not years, at a time.
Facebook completed construction of their first full scale aircraft, Aquila, a high-flying, long-endurance plane with the wingspan of a Boeing 737. The aircraft receives Internet signals from a ground-based gateway via radio frequencies. The signal is then transmitted to other drones forming a constellation using laser technology. All this from a devicethat weighs a third of a Prius (approx. 453kg)
Check out the building of Aquila, it’s pretty cool.
Google and Sri Lanka announced an MOU (memorandum of understanding) to use Project Loon balloons to cover the country with Internet access. Sri Lanka and Google will continue to discuss how this could possibly work and hopefully get to the testing phase by next March. If all goes according to plan Sri Lanka will be the first country to have universal Internet coverage.
These two projects have noble aims – socially beneficial, community-based access. By providing greater access to heath, education and political processes it is believed by many that the developing world can leapfrog through stages of development and catch up with more developed countries. Yesterday was a big step forward in the digital revolution for developing countries.
