Facebook Drones to Battle Google Balloons in the War of Airborne Internet
March 5th, 2014Via: Wired:
The race for the airborne internet is on.
According to multiple reports, Facebook is in talks to buy a drone maker whose solar-powered aircraft could operate as high-altitude wireless hot spots, circling in the stratosphere for years without refueling. That may seem far-fetched, but it’s not entirely surprising in the context of today’s online rivalries. Witness Google, Facebook’s chief nemesis, which is already running its own high-speed internet service down here on the earth — the ever-expanding Google Fiber — not to mention the balloons it’s building to bring internet access to more remote locations from high in the sky.
