According to the filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the social media giant is planning to launch its own internet satellite. At that time of revelation by FCC, Facebook kept quite, however, now it had made it official that the satellite-based internet project, Athena, is under development by PointView Tech.
Facebook told, “While we have nothing to share about specific projects at this time, we believe satellite technology will be an important enabler of the next generation of broadband infrastructure, making it possible to bring broadband connectivity to rural regions where internet connectivity is lacking or non-existent.” Not much information has been shared regarding the project but as per the emails obtained from the FCC, the firm seems eager to bring the internet to all parts of the world.
The project is reported to provide 10 times faster broadband connectivity than satellites from its other rivals, called SpaceX and OneWeb. The two firms have same plans to toss 12,000 of its internet satellites, Starlinks to the low Earth orbit (LEO). OneWeb, which is backed by SoftBank, Qualcomm and Virgin Group aims to provide global broadband coverage using 2500 internet satellites.
Some time ago, Facebook shut down its project of solar-powered internet delivering drones due to its decision to stop manufacturing its own aircraft and focusing on building a high altitude platform in cooperation with Airbus.