Internet connectivity is the key.
Facebook has come up with a solution that it hopes will bring Internet access to the four billion people who remain unconnected. On Thursday, July 30, Facebook announced the Aquila: a solar-powered, unmanned aircraft that essentially beams down Internet connectivity from the sky.
With the wingspan of a Boeing 737, the Aquila weighs less than a car and can stay in the air at 60,000 to 90,000 feet up to three months at a time. It's made from carbon fiber three times stronger than steel.
The way the Aquila will work is that a ground station will submit a radio Internet signal to a mother aircraft, which will feed other aircrafts in the constellation using lasers to provde Internet coverage. It's Facebook's focal point of investing in solar-powered aircrafts and laser technology as a mechanism to provide more Internet access.
"This effort is important because 10 percent of the world's population lives in areas without existing Internet infrastructure," said Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post on his Facebook account Thursday.
"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."
Zuckerberg accompanied his excitement for the Aquila with a video showing how it was developed and Facebook's ambitious plans for it.