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Meet Project Skybender: Google’s internet delivering drones

Internet giant Google, with the parent company now called Alphabet, has been secretly working for some time on delivering internet access to the broadest possible market.

The most notable of its efforts has probably been Project Loon, where it aims to beam internet to large areas using massive weather balloons.

Well, it looks like Google has another card up its sleeve, as public records have shown that Google is now experimenting with delivering internet by using solar-powered drones.

Named Project Skybender, it is said that the drone can deliver internet 40-times faster than 4G by using millimetre wave technology.

“The huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go,” explained Jacques Rudell, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, to The Guardian.

In theory, millimetre wave is said to be the underlying technology of 5G connections, transmit gigabits of data every second. Just as with Project Loon, Google is hoping to many of these self-flying drones in the air to beam internet to those in selected areas.

But the problem with millimetre wave technology is that it can only beam internet at short ranges, and it uses a lot of power to do so – and that is where the solar power comes in – in the form of Google Titan. Google is busy testing two different kinds, of which one includes a piloted drone.

The testing is currently being done at the Spaceflight Operations Center near a small town called Truth or Consequences in the state of New Mexico, where a number of the transceivers are located.

[Image – Google]

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