Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's ambitious plan to make the internet inescapable involves drones, infrared lasers, and tons of satellites. The company is working with scientists and aerospace engineers to create a lab that will develop ways to make the internet available to remote and underserved populations.
The "Facebook Connectivity Lab" will bring together NASA employees, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, and engineers from the British firm Ascenta, which builds solar-powered drones, to figure out ways to bring the internet to "every person in the world." The plan is to test drones over suburban areas, shoot up satellites over more rural locations, and use the laser beams to make long distance connections even faster, writes CNN.
If this plan sounds similar to Zuckerberg's previously announced Internet.org coalition, that's because it sort of is. But that project was meant to bring together more "traditional" firms, like Samsung and Nokia, to help deliver the 'net to far flung spots. So far, more than three million people in Paraguay and the Philippines have access to it.
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