Facebook is in conversation with other giant technology companies to disseminate internet connection to the isolated parts of the world. For this purpose Facebook Plans to Buy Drone Company Titan Aerospace. The light weight solar paneled air drones are supposed to remain in the air for 5 years without landing. This social network company is one of the main benefactors of the internet.org project. According to the latest statistics 2.7 billion people which is one- third of the world’s population has exposure to the internet. You might be thinking that why Facebook is talking about the exposure of internet when they have a little buying power? Actually, Facebook is playing a very clever game from the business point of view. This is the new and selfless dimension of internet.org project to facilitate every part with this technology. Other founding members of this project are Media Tak, Ericsson, Nokia, Opera, Samsung and Qualcomm.
Reportedly, Facebook will initialize its project from Africa. Facebook is spending $60 million dollars on this project. Recently this company bought WhatsApp for $19 billion. The drone makers will be Titan Aerospace, founders of new orbital and solar powered drones. This company is currently under its CEO Vern Raburn. He was also the founder and CEO of Eclipse Aviation. This company is programmed to produce “Atmosats” that perform work near to the earth’s satellite inexpensively. It was establish in May 2012 by Max Yaney. Olara.
Some Facts About Titan Aerospace’s Drones:
Titan Aerospace’s Drones can fly up to 65,000 feet that can easily be operated as a satellite at low cost. This drone has 160 foot long wings which is almost 49 meters. The company referred to it as a “Atmospheric Parking”. It has also the ability to carry almost 100 kg of equipment by 50 and 60 models. Tech Church reports say that most probably Facebook will buy 11,000 drones to carpet the patchy areas of world with internet access.
This is a versatile and philanthropist version of Drones. The Solara 50 and 60 can use power from internal battery packs and can be used at night. During day time, they can use this energy to arise 20 km from the sea level where they will stay for 5 years without fuel. This capability makes it much stronger for regional internet systems. The stipulation of these aircrafts is of much importance. The idea behind it is to place it above the air space that FAA administer in USA. The range of airspace is at 60,000 feet and FFA doesn’t permit more feet than that. So it seems that internet.org has to face some challenges in US to regulate this program. However, in other parts of the world laws may vary.
Impact of Titan Aerospace’s Drones
If Facebook will be successful in this mission then internet would carpet almost every part of the world. This would open up new possibilities for communication and IT industry and Facebook will emerge as the giant in this field.
If the atmospheric [drone] concept can be realized, the market for these platforms will grow rapidly while the commercial communications satellite market will be significantly impacted.
-Says Michael Blades, a Senior Analyst at Frost & Sullivan Aerospace and Defense
He also added that if Facebook would be successful in providing enough bandwidth to the world via drones then other companies might use the same methodology for other digital communication. There are also likelihoods that in case Facebook could project fragile internet access to the world than it might launch the basic version of WhatsApp. The users might not be able to view or send photos but they might be able to send messages and view status updates at free cost.
With the boost in technology, mobile phones are getting cheaper and it is the data that costs a lot. This is the reason which makes the web unaffordable. Drones can help to resolve this matter. Also Onavo could assist too. The team is working on data compression. Drones don’t need to send or to receive much data. In case of Onavo , enhanced Facebook and WhatsApp versions would also run on weaker signal. This project will enhance Facebook purchase signal growth potential in today’s market. Currently, it is 1.6% daily.
Why Facebook Plans to Buy Drone Company Titan Aerospace?
Facebook is not alone in its mission. Last year Google Inc. introduced the Project Loon. Google aims to use solar powered balloons instead of drones to carpet the remote regions with internet. One can predict easily that there will be a drone’s v/s air balloons battle. If you go deeply, generating their own system to expand internet will give both the companies more incentive. An exposure to internet will automatically generate more users for Facebook and Google. So, this will be a Win Win Strategy for both of them. This is the main purpose behind balloons and drones to blanket the world with net and then generate a craving in them for internet.