Facebook announced on Thursday that its Internet-providing drones are ready to take flight. The company will begin testing the aircraft later this year in an effort to bring Internet access to\u00a0hundreds of millions of people.<\/p>\n
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The social network also noted that it plans to work with established Internet providers rather than compete with them.\u00a0\u201cOur intention is not to be an operator\u201d Facebook\u2019s VP of engineering Jay Parikh told\u00a0TechCrunch<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to be \u2018Facebook ISP.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Facebook\u2019s drone, called Aquila, runs on solar power and is capable of flying for 90 days straight.\u00a0It boasts a 140 foot wingspan\u2014the same as big as a Boeing 737\u2014though the unmanned aircraft only weighs 880 pounds.\u00a0That\u2019s lighter than a 2015 Toyota Prius.<\/p>\n Each drone will spread Internet via laser, and Facebook says it\u2019s precise\u00a0enough to hit a dime-sized receptor from up to 10 miles away. In recent tests the Internet-providing laser offered speeds as fast as 10 gigabits per second.<\/p>\n Facebook is competing with Google to bring Internet to some of the most remote parts of the world. The search giant has a head start, and its\u00a0Project Loon balloons are already roaming the earth. Of course,\u00a0there\u00a0can\u2019t really be too much free Internet, and hopefully increasing competition in the space will only mean that both projects progress even quicker than before.<\/p>\n