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Facebook, Google Battle To Bring Internet To Remote Locations

Posted by samzenpus on from the spreading-the-net dept.

jfruh (300774) writes "Facebook and Google only make money from people when they can access the Internet, so it stands to reason that they're working to make sure everyone has access. While Google's Project Loon seeks to use balloon-borne equipment, Mark Zuckerberg envisions a system of drones and laser beams."

6 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. drones and laser beams by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Funny

    What I envision is a sci-fi battle where Google laser beams are attempting to shoot down Facebook drones.

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  2. Re:Stupid by Missing.Matter · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I told my wife about the Google balloon idea and she said to me "What, you mean like in Gossip Girl?"

    Apparently there is a story line in Gossip Girl (circa 2008) where one of the main characters is convinced to invest in a project to bring internet to Africa via balloons. In the end it turns out he's a scam artist and it was all a hoax. But I guess someone at Google saw it and said "Now wait a minute..."

  3. Re:Stupid by swillden · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd be a months pay that no one at Google has any intention of using this anywhere in the real world

    I'll take that bet. What proof of intention would you accept?

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  4. One practical problem with 3rd world internet... by netsavior · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think universal access to information is great, socially it is empowering and amazing... but FB and Google are not charities. As tfs says "Facebook and Google only make money from people when they can access the Internet"

    The internet is only available to the the richest 30% of the world.

    Advertisers currently access to the eyeballs of the top 30%

    Accessing the eyeballs of the very poor or extremely remote populations does not make sense from an advertising standpoint.

  5. envisions a system of drones and laser beams. by Chrisq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mark Zuckerberg envisions a system of drones and laser beams.

    I think the USAF envisions the same thing.

  6. Living in Africa by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I live in Northern Mozambique in Africa. Our NGO pays $1000 (USD) per month for a 1Mb/s symmetrical dedicated line. It's delivered via fiber, even out here. The incumbent state-owned provider is over $2000/month for a 1Mb/s copper line. The only other option is VSAT but that's 10:1 contention or higher unless you want to pay $8k/month or more. VSAT with contention is unusable during the day.

    We don't need balloons, we just need fiber terminations with reasonable fees. If we could get 10Mb/s for $500 that would transform the country.