By Alistair Barr and Reed Albergotti
Google Inc. on Monday acquired a maker of solar-powered
drones--a startup that Facebook Inc. had also considered
acquiring--as the technology giants battle to extend their
influence and find new users in the far corners of the earth.
Google didn't disclose the purchase price for New Mexico-based
Titan Aerospace, which is developing jet-sized drones that are
intended to fly non-stop for years. Google said the technology
could be used to collect images and offer online access to remote
areas.
Facebook had been in talks to buy Titan earlier this year, but
Google offered to top any Facebook offer, according to a person
familiar with the matter. Facebook later agreed to pay $20 million
for Ascenta, a U.K.-based aerospace company that also has been
working on solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles.
The drone makers are on the leading edge of a promising, but
largely unproven technology to beam Internet access to parts of the
world not served by telephone wires or cellphone towers. However,
industry observers say there are still technical challenges to
overcome. Even Amazon.com Inc., which is developing less
sophisticated aerial vehicles for short-hop deliveries, says its
drones remain four or five years in the future before regular
use.
Titan and its roughly 20 employees would stay in New Mexico and
the company would continue to be run by Chief Executive Vern
Raburn, a technology-industry veteran who previously headed
Symantec Corp. and Microsoft Corp.'s consumer-products
division.
Titan did not respond to a request seeking comment Monday
afternoon. A message on the company's website confirmed Google's
acquisition and referred media inquiries to Google's press office.
Google said Titan would work closely with its Project Loon, which
is building large, high-altitude balloons that send Internet
signals to areas of the world that are currently not online. Titan
also may work with Makani, another early-stage Google project that
is developing an airborne wind turbine that it hopes will generate
electricity efficiently.
One reason Facebook and Google are veering toward solar-powered
aircraft is that balloons are at the mercy of weather, said Kurt
Barnhart, director of the Applied Aviation Research Center at
Kansas State University. Balloons "are larger and harder to
control," he said, while solar power is a better choice for
unmanned aircraft than batteries, which can only keep aircraft
afloat for an hour or two. Fossil fuels are more expensive and
would require regular refueling.
Areas of focus for Google's teams include advanced material
design for lightweight flying vehicles and algorithms for wind
prediction and flight planning, Google said.
Titan has said its drones could collect real-time,
high-resolution images of the earth, carry other atmospheric
sensors and support voice and data services. That type of
technology could help Google businesses, such as its Maps
division.
"It is still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help
bring Internet access to millions of people, and help solve other
problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like
deforestation," a Google spokesman said in a statement.
Titan is developing two dragonfly-shaped drones powered by
batteries charged by wing-mounted solar panels to remain aloft at
night. The smaller model, the Solara 50, has a 164-foot wingspan,
larger than a Boeing Co. 767 jetliner.
Titan claims that its drones can help deliver data at speeds of
up to one gigabit a second using special communications equipment.
That would be significantly faster than broadband speeds available
in most developed countries.
The company has said it expects "initial commercial operations"
in 2015. However, industry observers say there are many technical
challenges to overcome before such services become a reality.
"The problem with solar planes is that they are limited to
smaller payloads, at night you are not collecting energy from the
sun and it takes a lot of power to broadcast Internet signals,"
said Patrick Egan, a drone expert and an editor of sUAS News, a
website covering the unmanned aircraft industry.
Facebook began reviewing solar-powered drones about six months
ago, according a person briefed on the company's "connectivity
lab," a group focused on finding new ways to provide Internet
services to places that are not online.
This person said Facebook's acquisition talks with Titan lasted
weeks. After the talks were disclosed, Titan was approached by
Google, which said it could beat whatever price Facebook was
offering. The talks broke down and Facebook set its sights on other
companies, the person added.
Google declined to comment on details of its Titan talks.
As part of its work on a possible deal, Facebook had tested
Titan's technology and researchers at the startup were able to get
a solar-powered aircraft 400 feet off the ground for a few minutes.
Members of Ascenta worked on another solar-powered drone, called
Zephyr, that stayed in the air for two weeks above the Arizona
desert in 2010.
Despite such problems, the potential for Internet service
delivered from high-altitude drones or balloons is presumed to be
large, suggesting a reason for Google and Facebook to pursue the
technology.
"If they can get past the technical challenge, they could build
proprietary networks offering Internet and wireless bandwidth that
are worth billions and billions of dollars," Mr. Egan said.
Facebook and Google potentially could reach millions of new
customers for their services as more of the world gets online, and
the companies could also sell their bandwidth to other providers,
he explained.
The biggest opportunity may be in the developing world, where
Google and Facebook are battling to be the first point of contact.
The search giant has its Android mobile operating system, which
last year captured 79% world-wide market share of smartphones
shipped, according to market researcher Strategy Analytics.
Facebook hopes to boost its user base in poorer countries with
two projects, including a version of its service tuned for cheap,
feature phones called "Facebook for Every Phone." Another product,
Facebook Zero, was launched in 2010 and is a stripped down mobile
website launched in concert with mobile operators who don't charge
data fees when the service is used.
Facebook's plans to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion also gives it a
new weapon to attract users in the developing world. The WhatsApp
messaging app is particularly popular in countries such as India
where telecom carriers still routinely charge for standard text
messages.
Rolfe Winkler contributed to this article.
Write to Alistair Barr at alistair.barr@wsj.com and Reed
Albergotti at reed.albergotti@wsj.com
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