Google plans to deliver 5G internet using drones

According to recent reports, Google is testing solar-powered drones that could deliver 5G wireless internet access from the air. The tests are conducted inside Virgin Galactic's Gateway to Space terminal at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

The project, called Skybender, is developed by the same team that works on Google's Project Loon. The drones are equipped with a new, super-high-speed wireless broadband technology based on millimeter waves. Millimeter waves are believed to be capable of transmitting data 40 times faster than LTE and could become the technology behind 5G internet.

There is a downside, though. Millimeter-wave signals travel one-tenth of the distance that 4G LTE signals do. To make up for this shortcoming, University of Washington professor Jacques Rudell says that Google would have to use phased arrays to allow high-flying drones to send millimeter-wave signals down to earth.

Google's project includes testing various transceivers that would extend the signals' coverage.

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