Category: internet.org

Facebook completes construction of its internet aircraft

Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Facebook has announced that it has completed the construction of its first full scale aircraft, Aquila, that can beam internet connectivity from the sky.

The unmanned aircraft, which Facebook calls Aquila, was first announced back in March. It is part of the Internet.org initiative which aims to connect people to the internet in areas without existing internet infrastructure.

Aquila is made of lightweight materials including carbon fiber, has a wingspan greater than a Boeing 737, and equipped with solar panels. It will fly above conventional air traffic for up to three months and will provide internet connectivity to remote places using lasers and radio frequency technology.

Zuckerberg says that it can can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second and can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away. Watch the video below:

I'm excited to announce we’ve completed construction of our first full scale aircraft, Aquila, as part of our Internet.org effort. Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time. We've also made a breakthrough in laser communications technology. We've successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That's ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away.This effort is important because 10% of the world’s population lives in areas without existing internet infrastructure. To affordably connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies. Using aircraft to connect communities using lasers might seem like science fiction. But science fiction is often just science before its time. Over the coming months, we will test these systems in the real world and continue refining them so we can turn their promise into reality. Here’s a video showing the building of Aquila.

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, July 30, 2015

 

The post Facebook completes construction of its internet aircraft appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Facebook completes construction of its internet aircraft

Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Facebook has announced that it has completed the construction of its first full scale aircraft, Aquila, that can beam internet connectivity from the sky.

The unmanned aircraft, which Facebook calls Aquila, was first announced back in March. It is part of the Internet.org initiative which aims to connect people to the internet in areas without existing internet infrastructure.

Aquila is made of lightweight materials including carbon fiber, has a wingspan greater than a Boeing 737, and equipped with solar panels. It will fly above conventional air traffic for up to three months and will provide internet connectivity to remote places using lasers and radio frequency technology.

Zuckerberg says that it can can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second and can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away. Watch the video below:

I'm excited to announce we’ve completed construction of our first full scale aircraft, Aquila, as part of our Internet.org effort. Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time. We've also made a breakthrough in laser communications technology. We've successfully tested a new laser that can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second. That's ten times faster than any previous system, and it can accurately connect with a point the size of a dime from more than 10 miles away.This effort is important because 10% of the world’s population lives in areas without existing internet infrastructure. To affordably connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies. Using aircraft to connect communities using lasers might seem like science fiction. But science fiction is often just science before its time. Over the coming months, we will test these systems in the real world and continue refining them so we can turn their promise into reality. Here’s a video showing the building of Aquila.

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, July 30, 2015

 

The post Facebook completes construction of its internet aircraft appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Facebook is developing lasers for internet connectivity

Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is developing a laser communications system that will be used as a new way to connect people to the internet.

The project is part of the company’s Internet.org efforts that aim to connect billions of people around the world who don’t live in range of existing wireless networks. According to Zuckerberg, it’s part of a new generation of connectivity platforms like satellites and high-altitude long-endurance drones.

Facebook Connectivity Lab calls it the Free Space Optical communication, or FSO, which is a way of using light to transmit data through space and then bounce it back to Earth with the help of laser-equipped satellites. The laser beams which are in the infrared part of the spectrum are basically invisible but for the sake of demonstration Facebook made them visible as you can see in the photos.

“FSO is a promising technology that potentially allows us to dramatically boost the speed of internet connections provided by any of the previously mentioned platforms. The lasers used in FSO systems provide extremely high bandwidths and capacity, on par with terrestrial fiber optic networks, but they also consume much less power than microwave systems. Because you can make the beam so much narrower, this allows you to focus all of your power exactly where you want it to go.”

sources: Facebook, Internet.org

The post Facebook is developing lasers for internet connectivity appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Facebook is developing lasers for internet connectivity

Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is developing a laser communications system that will be used as a new way to connect people to the internet.

The project is part of the company’s Internet.org efforts that aim to connect billions of people around the world who don’t live in range of existing wireless networks. According to Zuckerberg, it’s part of a new generation of connectivity platforms like satellites and high-altitude long-endurance drones.

Facebook Connectivity Lab calls it the Free Space Optical communication, or FSO, which is a way of using light to transmit data through space and then bounce it back to Earth with the help of laser-equipped satellites. The laser beams which are in the infrared part of the spectrum are basically invisible but for the sake of demonstration Facebook made them visible as you can see in the photos.

“FSO is a promising technology that potentially allows us to dramatically boost the speed of internet connections provided by any of the previously mentioned platforms. The lasers used in FSO systems provide extremely high bandwidths and capacity, on par with terrestrial fiber optic networks, but they also consume much less power than microwave systems. Because you can make the beam so much narrower, this allows you to focus all of your power exactly where you want it to go.”

sources: Facebook, Internet.org

The post Facebook is developing lasers for internet connectivity appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.

Facebook is developing lasers for internet connectivity

Louie Diangson Leave a comment

Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook’s Connectivity Lab is developing a laser communications system that will be used as a new way to connect people to the internet.

The project is part of the company’s Internet.org efforts that aim to connect billions of people around the world who don’t live in range of existing wireless networks. According to Zuckerberg, it’s part of a new generation of connectivity platforms like satellites and high-altitude long-endurance drones.

Facebook Connectivity Lab calls it the Free Space Optical communication, or FSO, which is a way of using light to transmit data through space and then bounce it back to Earth with the help of laser-equipped satellites. The laser beams which are in the infrared part of the spectrum are basically invisible but for the sake of demonstration Facebook made them visible as you can see in the photos.

“FSO is a promising technology that potentially allows us to dramatically boost the speed of internet connections provided by any of the previously mentioned platforms. The lasers used in FSO systems provide extremely high bandwidths and capacity, on par with terrestrial fiber optic networks, but they also consume much less power than microwave systems. Because you can make the beam so much narrower, this allows you to focus all of your power exactly where you want it to go.”

sources: Facebook, Internet.org

The post Facebook is developing lasers for internet connectivity appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.