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Internet.org/YouTube

Facebook plans to start testing its WiFi drones next year

The drone aircraft are expected to fly at an altitude of at least 60,000 feet, without a human operator

FACEBOOK’S OWN PLANS to bring internet access to everyone could take its first step next year as it begins testing its drone aircraft next year.

Speaking at the Social Good Summit in New York, the engineering director of Facebook’s new Connectivity Lab Yael Maguire, said that there were a “whole bunch of challenges” to overcome such as regulations which require one human operator to every drone, according to Wired.

The company has identified 21 locations in Latin America, Asia and Africa where it would like to test its internet beaming capabilities, but this is likely to happen two to five years down the line.

Instead of running the projects itself, Facebook is looking to work with groups in those areas, such as governments communities or local businesses who will deploy the technology the Connectivity Lab has created.

Internet heatmap A map of all the internet coverage in the world, according to Internet.org Internet.org Internet.org

For these drones to fly for months or years at a time, they will have to fly “above weather, above all airspace” according to Maguire. This could range from anywhere between 60,000 to 90,000 feet in the air and currently, there are no regulations surrounding aircraft that fly above 60,000 feet.

All the rules exist for satellites, and we’re invested in those. They play a very useful role, but we also have to help pave new ground.

The drone aircraft project is part of Internet.org, Facebook’s plan to bring internet access to the most remote parts of the world. Back in March, it launched its Connectivity Lab and purchased the drone aircraft company Ascenta.

Internet.org / YouTube

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13 Comments
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    Mute Liam Byrne
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 9:24 AM

    The leaving cert has always been about learning off answers. It’s not about knowledge, but memory- why are they only realising this now!?!?!?

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    Mute Kieran Murphy
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 10:03 AM

    I predicted my whole leaving cert perfectly including the language exams so that’s either due to luck or the leaving is really too predictable

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    Mute Cormac Cahill
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 2:36 PM

    in my english exam i predicited 4 out of 4 of the poets to come up. was like a kid in a candy store.

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    Mute Siobhán K
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 10:34 AM

    It’s a mixture of luck and predictability. I’m doing my leaving in June, and I’ve already been told what is likely to come up in most subjects. The thing is, you learn everything, concentrate your energy on the predictions coming up to the exam and then hope to god on the day the paper is suited to you.

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    Mute Jack Kelly
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 11:55 AM

    I’m in Junior Cert and even now the exam seems to be predictable. Our teachers are always saying “Oh, that didn’t come up last year – it’s due up this year, make sure we go over this” or “this is definitely coming up this year – make sure to know this” and so forth. My friend, also a JC student, told me their teacher spent weeks on one section of history because it is likely to come up for us. Another friend’s class skipped the entire section because it’s not due up this year. A bit mad….

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 9:30 AM

    So there not going to take place in June then.

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    Mute Iain Murray
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:59 PM

    Comment of the day!

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    Mute BJ
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:37 PM

    I wish they’d made mine more predictable!

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    Mute James Walsh
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 12:28 PM

    This is always going to be a problem because the Leaving Cert is one exam therefore its simply not possible to produce an exam paper that covers everything. Naturally students and teachers are always going to try and guess which sections of the courses are going to be examined. In effect the entire Leaving Cert course is a exercise in waste. Every exam probably covers at most 40% of what has been taught over the previous two years. Students spend vast amounts of time learning things that they are never going to be tested on.

    While its welcome that the problem is going to be looked at, realistically the only long term solution to this is to have a more holisitic approach to the syllabus. It would be better if subjects were also broken down in a more semester based approach rather than one two year course with one exam at the end. Such an approach would be involve continuous assessment, applied learning and peer review. It would require more resources to achieve this but the outcome should be better for students and that is where the focus should lie.

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    Mute Eoin Sheehy
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    Dec 22nd 2011, 1:55 PM

    Good Idea in theory but if it;’s like how the ‘revolutionary’ project Maths then it’ll be a disaster, didn’t have books for two months and our teacher still isn’t fully sure what’s on the course because there are parts in other books which aren’t in ours and vice versa!

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    Mute Daryl Walsh
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    Dec 23rd 2011, 10:52 AM

    As a leaving cert student up until last year, I understand where they’re coming from when they say predictable i.e the same section of the biology course can’t come up 2 years in a row, however.. You study the material for 2 years in order to be able to answer the questions that come up.. The course isn’t that big ya know so maybe it’s the actual structure of the leaving cert they should look at not the ‘predictability’ of it.

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    Mute Peter Costello
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    Jun 4th 2012, 6:34 PM

    Shouldn’t it really just ask all sections of each course and make them all part of the exam so that the entire course is covered. Or maybe the colleges should just have entrance exams instead.

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