The Conversation (0)
Alphabet Says It Shut Down Titan Drone Internet Project
Jan. 12, 2017 09:51AM PST
Emerging TechnologyAlphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) vied to acquire Titan Aerospace, a maker of high-altitude, solar-powered drones, in 2014. Google won the bidding, so Facebook purchased its own company, which was building a huge glider called Aquila, but both have faced setbacks. As quoted in the press release: The idea was to beam internet access from the sky …
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) vied to acquire Titan Aerospace, a maker of high-altitude, solar-powered drones, in 2014. Google won the bidding, so Facebook purchased its own company, which was building a huge glider called Aquila, but both have faced setbacks.
As quoted in the press release:
The idea was to beam internet access from the sky to get more people logging on from remote places to access information and probably use both companies’ web services. That soaring vision has come down to Earth with a bump.
On Wednesday, a spokeswoman from Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s X research lab said it had shut down Titan. This happened in early 2016, she said, although confirmation didn’t come until earlier today, when technology blog 9to5Google reported the move.
