Facebook Gets Its Drone On
Comment (7)Is it a bird? Is it…. OK, enough of that. It's Aquila, the giant unmanned high-altitude Facebook drone designed to help provide Internet access to remote areas that has, according to the social media giant, just taken its first major test flight.
You can read a full account of the flight and why Facebook is investing in drones, satellites and other wireless technologies, in this official blog, which includes a video with some stunning images.
As a reminder, this is an aircraft that, according to Zuckerberg's crew, will be able to fly for up to three months at a time (solar-powered) and provide connectivity from more than 60,000 feet using millimeter wave (mmWave) and laser technology. It's actually quite mind-boggling.
Why should we care? Well, whether people like it or not, the whole world is becoming a digital society that, in one way or another, is going to be connected to networks and for many that will open up many new opportunities that will affect their lives and prospects. But more than half of the world's 7.4 billion inhabitants are not connected to the Internet. Bridging the digital divide is important -- everyone should at least have the chance to benefit from the information and communications capabilities that networks have to offer, if they choose to.
Should bridging that divide be the responsibility of global megacorps such as Facebook and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG)? Well, they're investing in these programs and in technology because either a) others aren't b) others are doing it too slowly, or c) others are doing it in a way that doesn't meet their aspirations/goals. They are filling what they see as a void and it's hard to imagine they are going to announce the suspension of programs such as Internet.org anytime soon.
For more on such remote connectivity initiatives, see:
- Facebook Debuts Terragraph & ARIES to Extend Wireless
- Facebook Lauds Terragraph Cost Savings
- Google's 5G Radio Ambitions Are Expanding
- Facebook Joins TM Forum in Connectivity Push
- Google's Internet Balloon Project Takes Flight
- The Trouble With Drones...
- Google Ready to Release Thousands of Loons
- Commercial Drone Interest & Development Skyrockets, Heavy Reading Reports
— Ray Le Maistre, 
, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading
So it looks like Facebook is driven by a mix of altruism, idealism, and hubris. And just maybe some breakthrough technology that makes all this viable at an operational level.
I don't object to them having a go. I admire aspects of it. But ultimately the way to sustain networks is to have them make a profit for those who operate them.
On the business case, Facebook is aiming to catalyze the market by developing technology and reference platforms, but have someone else actually deploy and operate it. There are good reasons for this, but even so, I think the company is going to have to get its hands dirty and really prove these technologies can be operated over the long-term, at scale, profitably, if it is to draw in serious 3rd party operators.
Facebook has talked about possibly open-sourcing the cost data it has used to develop the business cases for its Connectivity Lab projects. If it follows through, we'll see how rooted in reality they are. I must say, I'm intrigued. They reckon with UAVs they can be 10 x cheaper than what could be achieved with terrestrial technologies. I suspect they are being highly selective in the use-cases they are comparing to get that 10x lower cost number, but I'm less inclined to think these are total pie-in-the-sky (geddit?) ideas than I was previously.
It's all quite amazing.
