{"id":18792,"date":"2019-04-01T00:32:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T04:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/facebook-reportedly-worked-on-project-to-build-fleet-of-bird-sized-internet-drones\/"},"modified":"2019-04-01T00:32:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T04:32:14","slug":"facebook-reportedly-worked-on-project-to-build-fleet-of-bird-sized-internet-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/?p=18792","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Reportedly Worked on Project to Build Fleet of Bird-Sized Internet Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"
Actual pigeons flying through fog in Kathmandu, Nepal, in January 2019.<\/figcaption>
Photo: Niranjan Shrestha (AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It turns out that Facebook\u2019s onetime plan to build huge drones that would relay wireless networks to parts of the world without widespread access to high-speed internet, Project Aquila<\/a>, isn\u2019t the only odd method the company has explored in its quest towards world e-domination. According to a recent report in Business Insider<\/a> (paywalled), Facebook worked on a since-canceled project titled \u201cCatalina\u201d that would use much smaller drones to help boost wireless speeds.
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A source told the site Catalina \u201cbegan in late 2017 or earlier\u201d and continued past end of Aquila in June 2018. Named after Santa Catalina Island, a landmass off the coast of California that at one point used pigeons for communication with the mainland, the project entailed fixed-wing drones \u201ccloser in size to a sparrow than an eagle\u201d that would use high-density solid-state drives to ferry data to users who might find it prohibitively time-consuming to stream it over slow connections. Business Insider wrote:<\/p>\n

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Facebook recently explored building bird-size drones loaded with data to help improve people\u2019s internet connections.<\/p>\n

The Menlo Park, California-headquartered technology giant worked on a far-out project, called Catalina, in recent years that aimed to build tiny fixed-wing aircraft capable of ferrying media to communities to augment slow internet connections like 2G, Business Insider has learned.<\/p>\n

… Facebook had planned to first test it with content for its core apps like Messenger and to eventually expand the airborne service to third-party apps like YouTube and Netflix \u2014 an indication as to how Facebook\u2019s Connectivity efforts act as a vehicle to drive user growth and engagement on Facebook as much as to improve access to other internet services.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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It\u2019s not really clear from the report how this would have worked\u2014as Engadget noted<\/a>, the concept appears to imply that the drones would \u201crelay information between traditional mobile infrastructure from afar and people\u2019s phones,\u201d while the Verge suggested<\/a> they would act as a mesh network. However, the report is light on both technical details and how well the project worked, other than that the Facebook team dubbed the drone model a \u201cpigeonet.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aquila drone\u2019s demise came after reports of serious technical problems, with two<\/a> known tests<\/a> reportedly resulting in damage during landings. Critics had speculated<\/a> whether the plan was really a good use of Facebook\u2019s resources, as opposed to more traditional methods of building out internet infrastructure. While Aquila itself was scrapped, Facebook said it would continue to focus on the underlying connectivity technologies for possible use on other manufacturer\u2019s aircraft. Later, it was reported to be working on a project to test small, low Earth orbit satellites that would provide internet access<\/a> to underserved areas.<\/p>\n

As Business Insider noted, Facebook has used other methods to try and expand into places where internet infrastructure has not yet reached a high stage of development, including its Free Basics program offering a walled-garden version<\/a> of the internet to users, rural wireless access program OpenCellular<\/a>, and a program called \u201cStreet Feet.\u201d That one apparently entailed approaching locals in emerging markets like Bangladesh and Tanzania, a source told Business Insider, and trying to persuade them to create Facebook accounts.<\/p>\n

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[Business Insider<\/a> via Engadget<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Actual pigeons flying through fog in Kathmandu, Nepal, in January 2019.Photo: Niranjan Shrestha (AP)It turns out that Facebook\u2019s onetime plan to build huge drones that would relay wireless networks to parts of the world without widespread access to high-speed internet, Project Aquila, isn\u2019t the only odd method the company has explored in its quest towards world e-domination. According to a recent report in Business Insider (paywalled), Facebook worked on a since-canceled project titled \u201cCatalina\u201d that would use much smaller drones to help boost wireless speeds.<\/p>\n

A source told the site Catalina \u201cbegan in late 2017 or earlier\u201d and continued past end of Aquila in June 2018. Named after Santa Catalina Island, a landmass off the coast of California that at one point used pigeons for communication with the mainland, the project entailed fixed-wing drones \u201ccloser in size to a sparrow than an eagle\u201d that would use high-density solid-state drives to ferry data to users who might find it prohibi..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mdpair.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}