Items tagged with Internet.org
Facebook picked up a new team member this week in its quest to bring Internet access to developing countries. Kevin Martin, who has been consulting for Facebook for the past two years, is better known as the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2005 to 2009. Martin joins as a vice president and will be responsible for policies that affect Facebook’s Internet.org project, among others. Facebook is in the process of launching a fleet of massive drones that will fly over developing countries, providing Internet access to as many as 2.8 billion people who are believed to lack connectivity. Kevin Martin, left, speaks to Google CEO Eric Schmidt. (Image Source: Robert...
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Facebook’s efforts to spread Internet connectivity to nearly every person on the globe will get off the ground this summer. A new report from The Wall Street Journal indicates that Facebook’s prototype drone, dubbed Aquila, will be much larger than the one-tenth-scale drone that the company tested in early March. The full-size model will have the wingspan of a Boeing 737 (117 feet), but will only weigh as much as a small car (we’re assuming something that weighs less than 3,000 pounds). “Depending on how this test flight goes, we’ll see what happens,” says Jay Parikh, Facebook’s VP of Engineering. “This is a big plane, this is a big project and it’s never been done before.” The drones are capable...
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Facebook seems to be prepared to spend billions in order to reach its goal of providing everyone with access to the Internet, according to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. Speaking at an event in Mexico City, which was hosted by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, Zuckerberg said, “What we really care about is connecting everyone in the world. Even if it means that Facebook has to spend billions of dollars over the next decade making this happen, I believe that over the long term its gonna be a good thing for us and for the world.” Back in August 2013, Facebook and six mobile phone companies launched Internet.org, a project with the goal to bring affordable internet access to...
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We’d bet that when Mark Zuckerberg drunkenly dashed off the original Facebook precursor in his dorm room, he never imagined that within a decade he’d be actively trying to connect two-thirds of the world to the Internet and working with NASA to do so, but that is indeed what has transpired. Zuckerberg announced that Internet.org, the organization comprising Facebook and many other Internet companies, is “working on ways to beam internet to people from the sky” by building drones, satellites, and lasers in the new Facebook Connectivity Lab. Different population densities require different solutions. For example, in low population densities, the team is looking to satellites....
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You have to hand it to Mark Zuckerberg: He is not screwing around when it comes to his ambitious Internet.org venture to connect the entire world to the Internet, at least if the rumors are true that Facebook is going to buy drone maker Titan Aerospace for $60 million. Titan Aerospace makes unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also known as drones, and Facebook would most certainly be interested in the devices’ ability to carry networking equipment that could provide Internet access for all. Credit: Titan Aerospace Titan’s Solara 50 and Solara 60 models appear to be the main target here. The UAVs can be launched anytime powered by an internal battery, and when the sun comes up they’ll...
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Oh, so that’s why. Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp was big news, primarily as it left many of us wondering why exactly the company would spend such an unbelievable sum of money on it. After a speech at MWC in which WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum stated that WhatsApp will soon offer free voice calls, it all makes much more sense. Effectively, when WhatsApp rolls out voice calling capabilities--Android and iPhone this spring and then BlackBerry, Nokia phones, and Windows Phone at some point, too--it, and by proxy Facebook, will be a sort of mobile carrier. Essentially what’s happening here is that the WhatsApp guys realized that data is the primary...
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Is Internet access a human right? That’s the question Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was wrestling with--”was”, because he stated in a long document that he’s come to believe that it is. And Facebook is doing something about it. Zuckerberg and Facebook, in collaboration with “technology leaders, nonprofits, local communities, and experts”, have launched an effort to deliver affordable Internet access to the two-thirds of the world that don’t have it called Internet.org. Essentially, the group has identified three key areas that need to be addressed in order for ubiquitous Internet access to be a global possibility. The three “levers” are:...
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