Facebook had been working on the Aquila drone to deliver internet access to remote areas. However, the company recently decided to pull the plug on this project. It confirmed that it will no longer design and manufacture its internet drones. Facebook said that this project was not necessary when “leading companies” in aerospace are already developing their own high-altitude solutions for this purpose. Facebook is going in a different direction now. It’s going to launch an internet satellite.
Following the public disclosure of some FCC emails, Facebook has officially confirmed to Wired that it’s developing an internet satellite internally called Athena which it’s planning to launch at some point next year.
A spokesperson for the company didn’t provide any further details about the satellite but a shell organization that Facebook used in order to obscure the FCC filings mentioned that the satellite is meant for delivering broadband internet access to “unserved and underserved” areas. The low Earth orbit satellite would be on a “limited duration” mission.
What this means is that it’s likely going to be an experiment initially instead of a full deployment since a low Earth orbit satellite internet would require a major cloud of satellites to provide considerable coverage.
It goes to show that Facebook hasn’t given up on its ambitions of delivering internet access to remote regions of the planet. It’s just switching up the method of delivery.
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