On June 28th, we completed the first successful flight of Aquila — our solar-powered plane that will beam the internet to remote parts of the world and eventually break the record for longest unmanned aircraft flight. The flight took place before dawn in Yuma, Arizona. Our original mission was to fly Aquila for 30 minutes, but things went so well that we decided to keep […]
Today 1.6 billion people live in regions that don’t have access to a mobile broadband network. Connecting these remote parts of the world with existing technologies such as buried optical fiber or microwave links on towers is often cost-prohibitive. As part of our commitment to Internet.org, the Facebook Connectivity Lab is developing many new technologies to bring affordable internet access to more people, more quickly. […]