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The battle to bring the Internet to remote parts of the world will be fought in the sky. Facebook plans to buy Titan Aerospace, a New Mexico-based maker of solar-powered drones, for $60 million, CNBC is reporting. Titan's drones reportedly can remain in flight 12 miles high for up to five years, offering a potential solution for beaming broadband to areas that don't have it. Spokesmen for Facebook and Titan did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The deal was first reported by TechCrunch. A deal could further Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's ambition to connect more of the world. Last year, Zuckerberg and Facebook launched Internet.org, a partnership with tech companies including Qualcomm and Samsung, that aims to deliver Internet access to two-thirds of the world's population that doesn't already have it. The deal for Titan would represent one of the first concrete steps taken by the partnership to achieve its goal. Google has its own plan to beam Internet from high up in the earth's atmosphere, using balloons that would float in the stratosphere. The balloons are part of Project Loon, which is being developed by Google's skunkworks lab, Google X. Meanwhile, Amazon has expressed its own interest in drones, for delivering packages instead of broadband. Announced in December, Amazon Prime Air would use small flying robots to deliver packages within 30 minutes.
