In a June 26 blog post, Facebook's Yael Maguire announced that the social media giant officially ending its program for high-altitude, solar-powered drones, which meant a backbone for rural Internet access.
Called Aquila, the system was based on the work of Ascenta, a drone research company based in the UK that Facebook acquired in 2014. The Aquila drones have used laser communication links for each other and thus a high-altitude platform station (HAPS) through which would provide internet connectivity to stations on the ground. However, after just two test flights, Facebook has decided that there are other companies that would be better suited to exploring this technology.