Facebook stops building drones that would have provided wireless internet to the developing world, will instead focus on developing underlying technology
- The revelation comes after Business Insider reported on upheaval at the Aquila project, including the departure of its leader and a planned redesign.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook's aerial connectivity program has been unwinding piece by piece: it had already scrapped a secret $500 million satellite plan in 2015, even as it flew the solar-powered Aquila drone through a full-scale prototype with a 10-gigabit laser link and an inaugural test flight in 2016.
The end of drone manufacturing follows reported upheaval inside the Aquila project, including its leader's departure and a planned redesign — and it lands alongside Facebook's parallel bet on OpenCellular, its open-source wireless access platform whose hardware plans are free to researchers and manufacturers.
First-order effects
- Aquila's team loses its mission as a vehicle program: Facebook will no longer build the Boeing-737-wingspan drones itself, redirecting effort toward developing the underlying wireless technology.
Second-order effects
- Partners and suppliers counting on Facebook as a drone customer are left without one, while telecom operators and equipment makers gain the technology as something to license or build on rather than a turnkey flying network.
Third-order effects
- With both the satellite and the in-house drone abandoned, Facebook's connectivity strategy converges on enabling others — open-source designs and core technology over owned infrastructure — a template other platform companies pursuing global coverage may follow.
The trend: Big-platform connectivity moonshots are retreating from owning aircraft and satellites toward licensing the underlying wireless technology, leaving deployment to operators and manufacturers.