In an attempt to connect parts of the world with Wi-Fi Internet, Facebook announced at a summit in New York earlier this week that it will start testing drones in the sky by 2015.
The effort is a joint force between Facebook's Connectivity Lab and internet.org. Following the mission of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's charitable aim, the Connectivity Lab will develop technologies for aircrafts that will provide Internet to the world.
Don't call them "drones" though, Yael Maguire, engineering director of Facebook's Connectivity Lab said. The "planes" will be about the size of a 747 airplane, and are meant to fly for months or years. The Wi-Fi planes will remain airborne at about 65,000 feet. The drones will have to fly above weather to work.
There are no regulations for aircrafts flying at those heights, but there must be at least one human powering each drone. "We need a regulatory environment that will be open to one pilot perhaps managing 10 or 100 drones. We have to figure these things out," Maguire said.
Facebook is hopping on the bandwagon of bringing Internet to those without, similar to Google's "Project Loon" balloons. GoogleX Lab plans on bringing billions of people Internet access within a year with the launch of its balloons.
Facebook acquired Ascenta, the drone makers in March of 2014, and has long-term hopes of successfully launching the project in three to five years after next year's tests.
