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from the parallel-world-where-drones-are-constructive dept.
n1 writes:
Mark Zuckerberg took to his blog yesterday to announce the next phase of his Internet.org initiative, to deliver Internet to the majority of the world which currently has no connectivity.
Today, we're sharing some details of the work Facebook's Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone.
We've made good progress so far. Over the past year, our work in the Philippines and Paraguay alone has doubled the number of people using mobile data with the operators we've partnered with, helping 3 million new people access the Internet.
He goes on to describe the team working on this project, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and the UK aerospace company Ascenta. Which casts doubt over previous speculation that Facebook is planning to acquire Titan Aerospace.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hybristic on Friday March 28 2014, @11:53PM
There are already plenty of people providing this type of stuff. Charity Water [charitywater.org] is among many that aim to provide things like water and other essentials. But what is much harder to get done is building an internet infrastructure. Its very costly to go dig up and install fiber, especially when the urban sprawl is so vast. Google Loon was supposed to be helping with this in a similar manner as described in TFS, but I haven't looked into that project in a while to see if its already started.
Theres also the idea that the Internet provides access to education that most of those countries will never have access to any other way. While most of the world takes the Internet for granted, its a service that is pivotal to our daily lives. How can we expect these emerging countries to bridge that gap, especially when they lack education? I think its a very good idea to get more countries connected. I would not have anywhere near the scope of knowledge that I have now without the internet, and it is kind of sad to think about that fact others do not have this tool readily at their disposal.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Saturday March 29 2014, @12:42AM
Why do I keep getting the idea of solar powered dirigible "cell towers"? These things can be towed into place, tethered, and will maintain altitude without expenditure of fuel. A dirigible has a pretty large area exposed to insolation, and we are developing lots of quite thin and light photovoltaics. We are now getting to where we can build some decent lithium cells to store energy overnight.
My guess is these could be made quite inexpensively, deployed, and in the event some are lost during storms, inflate and release some more.
My take on this is if we are going to build out land-based infrastructure, from what I see, water pumping stations and sewage treatment systems need priority.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]