Could this drone spread internet access around the globe?
Two in three people around the world don’t have internet access, but a Portuguese team is working to change that.
Fast Company reported on a device that can surpass what we widely use here to deliver our internet at home and work — cables laid in the ground or towers built to send and receive signals. Portuguese company Quarkson developed a prototype that would scrap that infrastructure for a cheap, portable solution — a WiFi hotspot drone. The device is estimated to cost 100 times less than a tower, and could make internet more affordable and accessible to people around the world.
Why has no one come up with this before? American tech companies like Google have been working on their own cheap, internet-delivery-by-drone projects, but the issue with the devices is that they can’t fly around for too long. Quarkson’s drone could fly for years, while others must land within 24-hours.
In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration has already developed policies that limit public and commercial drone use as companies like Amazon consider utilizing them in delivery services. But if model like Quarkson's receives permission from the FAA to operate, it could introduce a new level of competition to the cable internet industry in America. In the U.S., internet access has more to do with affordability of service than an absence of a network. A Pew Hispanic Center survey found that while 93 percent of Latino families with an income between $30,000 and $50,000 used the internet, that rate dropped to 71 percent for those making less than $30,000 a year. Mobile services, or using the internet through a cell phone, is becoming an increasingly common alternative to home internet access.