Back in early March, I covered the news that Facebook was looking to purchase drone-making company Titan Aerospace in a bid to challenge Google's effort to provide cheap internet from the sky. As it turns out, Google is instead the company that purchased Titan, flipping the table on any plans Facebook may have had.
It looked like we would see Google and Facebook use two different methods to provide internet to people around the world. Both wanted to beam signals down from the sky, but through differing means: Google would use air balloons equipped with technology developed in their Project Loon program, while Facebook supposedly planned to use Titan's drones achieve the same goal.
There were pros and cons to each--Google's balloons were cheap, while drones are more reliable but very expensive--but it seems a moot point now. It's unclear if Facebook has different plans now and still wants to compete in that field, but they certainly won't be doing so with Titan (if they ever truly did want to buy the aerospace company).
Providing low-cost internet to people who normally don't have connections is a nice goal to have, but the real draw is gaining a large piece of this untapped, potentially very profitable market. It makes sense that Facebook will still be interested, but we should definitely be looking to Google to make the largest strides.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Google bought Titan, and that the tech giant plans to partner its Project Loon with the newly acquired drone technology. Titan's newest drones are solar powered, and can serve reliably for many years. I don't think we'll hear any specifics from Google too soon, but I imagine they are working on it behind the scenes if they spent what was no doubt a large sum of money to buy out Titan. Keep an eye out here for any future announcements from Google related to their plans with Titan and Project Loon.
