Facebook plans to test internet beaming drones in 2015

Google has its Project Loon Internet beaming balloons and now Facebook is planning to test drones which will be able to do the same and will carry out tests in the year 2015. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has announced that it will be the part of the Internet.org to connect the entire population across the world to the web.

Unlike today's flying drones which are a bit compact in size, Facebook's own drone will be as big as a 747 jumbo jet. Using Ascenta's solar power technology, the giant drones will be designed to fly for months or even years.

In order to stay above various weather conditions, the drones will fly at around 65,000 feet, according to Popular Science. At this height, the drones are not limited by regulatory hurdles. However, the company is still required by law to appoint at least one human pilot for each drone.

"We need a regulatory environment that will be open to one pilot perhaps managing 10 or 100 drones," Yael Maguire, Connectivity Lab's engineering director explained.

"We have to figure these things out," he added.

Although Facebook did not give out a specific date, the company is targeting 2015 as the test launch for the jumbo drones, Slash Gear reported.

The social media giant's latest endeavor is somewhat similar to Google's Project Loon. But instead of drones, Google opted to use high-altitude balloons to provide Internet service to people living in developing parts of the world.

Under the guidance of Google X, the balloons use LTE data systems to provide mobile connectivity to people in the areas they traveled to.

"This is the poster child for Google X," Astro Teller, head of Google X said.

"The balloons are delivering 10x more bandwidth, 10x steer-ability, and are staying up 10x as long," he added. "That's the kind of progress that can only happen a few more times until we're in a problematically good place."