Facebook will use satellites to 'shoot' the Internet for African users

Facebook has just announced that it is working with Eutelsat (a French satellite operator) and Spacecom (a satellite telecommunications company) to provide broadband internet access to remote areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

Facebook uses satellite to bring down the internet to users in Africa

The multi-year deal marks the use of the AMOS-6 satellite to "shoot" the Internet down to the ground and is scheduled to begin online in the first half of 2016. Eutelsat added that thanks to the device Cheap available that they can optimize the network capacity for direct Internet transmission to users, as well as optimally for the whole community to use.

Image of satellite that Eutelsat and Facebook will deploy.

Total bandwidth will be shared between Eutelsat and Facebook. A separate system for signal processing will also be designed and implemented within the framework of the project.

This is Facebook's latest effort within the framework of the Internet.org initiative, which aims to bring networking to underdeveloped nations. Facebook has also begun experimenting with the use of large drone aircraft to transmit the Internet. There are 19 countries in the world that use the internet provided by Internet.org.

Facebook's announcement follows a UN report that 57 percent of the global population still does not have access to the Internet, with 90 percent of those living in the world's poorest countries. In Africa alone, broadband access has improved in recent years, but this is still a luxury for many in the continent.