GOOGLE IS TESTING DRONES FOR 5G INTERNET DELIVERY.
Not only is Google going to great lengths to provide fast
Internet, it’s going to great heights as well. In a new initiative known as
Project Skybender, the Silicon Valley giant is looking into employing
solar-powered drones to beam down 5G Internet. The highly secretive project is
based out of — I kid you not — Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and involves
a series of unmanned flying devices that use millimeter-wave radio
transmissions. These signals are considered the foundation of next generation
5G Wi-Fi, and could potentially send gigabits of data per second, making for
Internet that is 40 times faster than 4G LTE.
This is not Google’s only drone-based Internet delivery
system currently in testing — there’s also Project Loon, which seeks to provide
Internet to the entire world by way of balloons. But the Skybender Project is
focused much more on using breakthrough innovations to bring incredibly speedy
Wi-Fi to those of us who can no longer stand for decently speedy Internet.
The millimeter wave technology that forms the lynchpin of
the whole endeavor is described as the “future of high-speed data transmission
technology,” and is thought to be the basis of a next-generation (read: 5G)
mobile network. Google isn’t the only company to be experimenting with this
transmission technique — as The Verge reports, Chet Kanojia, the founder of
Aereo, has a new startup called Starry that also plans to use millimeter waves
for gigabit Internet speeds to customers.
The problem with millimeter waves today lies in their short
range and volatility (they don’t stand up well to precipitation or even fog),
but Google and others are looking to rectify these issues.
Ultimately, says the Guardian, Google hopes to send a fleet
thousands of quadcopters strong to deliver 5G Internet. And while there are no
promises yet as to the outcome of these ongoing tests, if they work, we’re in
for some breakneck Wi-Fi speeds.
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