Facebook in talks to buy drone company, could battle Google's internet balloons

Facebook is in discussions to purchase Titan Aerospace,
a company that makes solar-powered drones that can
apparently stay up in the skies for up to five years at a
time. According to Techcrunch's sources, Facebook
wants solar-powered drones to deliver sky-based
internet access, with a view to building 11,000 UAVs to
deliver data services, at least initially, in Africa. The
drone company has confirmed that there are discussions
with Facebook, The plan would certainly chime with
the social network's Internet.org efforts to expand
online access in developing countries. Of course,
Google is also trialling internet access from the sky,
although it's using balloons, with Project Loon offering
50 testers internet access via solar-powered helium
balloons. Its experiments are currently centered on the
southern hemisphere, namely New Zealand. The
purchase will reportedly cost Facebook $60 million --
still, a whole lot cheaper than a messaging app.

SOURCE: Techcrunch