Late this past summer Titan Aerospace announced Solera, a high-altitude, solar powered UAV capable of broadcasting communication signals. With a 50m (164ft) wingspan and the ability to stay aloft for up to 5 years, the lightweight flyer has the potential to make communications satellites moot.
With near total domination of the social media landscape in both North America and Europe, Facebook’s acquisition of Titan Aerospace could be a big step towards bringing reliable internet access to underserved parts of the globe.
According to speculative reports, Facebook is looking to deploy a fleet of 11,000 UAVs over Africa. Operating from an altitude of 19,800 m (65,000ft), each Solera could broadcast a cellular internet signal over a 45,000 sq. km range.
With much of Africa still devoid of reliable hardline internet connections, providing widespread access to cellular internet could bring Facebook to millions – if not billions – of people who are currently offline. While providing free internet to developing nations is inherently humanitarian, Facebook could also use the service to bring Africa into focus for its advertisers.
Although there’s an enormous amount of money to be made in bringing internet access to the developing world, this new rumor highlights a dramatic change in the world of technology and innovation. More and more these days private companies are taking the initiative to develop infrastructures and technologies that, in previous decades, would have been developed by large state-run efforts.
Whether this new model is sustainable or preferable over the old is still up for debate. However, what is known is that private investments in moonshot technologies are certainly increasing the speed of innovation. Whether that’s a product of greater access to information, communication and product development tools, or just an echo of greater investment is something that’s definitely worth some study.
Image Courtesy of Solera