Facebook's Drone-and-Laser Plan To Spread Internet Worldwide

Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious plan is part of Internet.org – a Facebook-backed initiative involving companies like Qualcomm, Samsung, Nokia, MediaTek as well as Ericsson now owned by Sony.

On Thursday, Zuckerberg for the first time gave an insight about Internet.org’s Connectivity Lab. A Lab comprising of a team of scientists from NASA, Ascenta and top research institutions across the world that has one objective – to “beam Internet to people from the sky”.

“We’re going to continue building these partnerships, but connecting the whole world will require inventing new technology too. That’s what our Connectivity Lab focuses on, and there’s a lot more exciting work to do here” the Facebook co-founder and CEO said

Few weeks ago, some reports claimed an acquisition of drone maker Titan Aerospace by Facebook was imminent. These reports haven’t been confirmed and Zuckerberg made no mention of the company in his post to users of Facebook, making the report still only a rumor.

“Our goal with Internet.org is to make affordable access to basic internet services available to every person in the world” Zuckerberg said.

“Over the past year, our work in the Philippines and Paraguay alone has doubled the number of people using mobile data with the operators we’ve partnered with, helping three million new people access the Internet,” he wrote.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/27/us-facebook-internet-idUSBREA2Q27420140327
http://www.thatnaijablog.com/2014/03/facebook-drones-for-internet.html