Facebook has been in the news lately for security issues, which have made users about the social networking site. On the contrary, here comes a different news, as Facebook decided to do something fun! More specifically, the company decided to build observatories on Mount Wilson in California!
According to experts, Facebook’s observatories will be used to “host” the first system that can connect to orbiting satellites. The tip about the observatories has come from construction permits issued by the County of Los Angeles. So far, the permits have shown that a small company called PointView Tech is handling the construction for Facebook. The permits also show that a pair of isolated observatories are being built on top of the mountain. It should be noted that PointView is a subsidiary of Facebook, for which IEEE Spectrum claims to be building a satellite called Athena. In addition, PointView has applied to the FCC to test whether E-band radio signals could be used for broadband access in areas that are not covered and not served. For its part, the FCC has not made a decision on the aforementioned request so far.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of this technology?
The advantage of space lasers for communication is that they support higher data rates than radio transmitters for a given input power. In addition, signals from these satellites have been said to be almost completely unaffected by interference or hacking. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that clouds pose significant issues. Other data collected from the construction permits include that construction work began in July of last year and passed inspection in mid-December 2018. In fact, to date, there have been no official comments about the construction from Facebook.
