Tech giants like Google and Facebookhave been trying for years to find ways to provide internet to billions of people who still lack reliable connectivity. Now, an American initiative has recently emerged, called Telefit. More specifically, Telelift is an attempt to create a “cell phone tower.” It uses airplanes the size of a dining room table and are attached to the ground by a long wire, and according to their 22-year-old creator, Rahul Tiwari, they can stay in the air for at least a month. Rahul Tiwari conceived the idea in the summer of 2017 while studying engineering at Purdue University in Indiana. His drones hover at 200 feet while connected to solar panels or a power source located on the ground, using a power about the same as that of a microwave oven.
Rahul Tiwari initially wanted his drones to be used as anti-poaching “flying observers” in Africa. However, he soon discovered that the drones he built could do much more, such as flying for hours with 4G routers, allowing them to carry and provide internet anywhere.
Spooky Action , which started in Minnesota, now wants to deploy Telelift in areas with low and poor-quality internet access, starting with African countries such as Kenya, Niger, Botswana, and Senegal.
According to the GSMA, which represents mobile businesses worldwide, there are approximately 4 billion people around the world who do not have access to the internet.
Tiwari plans to work with network providers in the suburbs, where a drone can cover the most people, and then they could do the same in more remote areas. He also notes that network providers are willing to pay for such a product as it would be a great offer and convenience for people.
Each drone can provide high-quality internet for several hundred people within a radius of between 20 miles and 30 miles, so remote areas may only need one drone, while suburbs may need more.
As for the cost of the drones, they are priced at $40,000 and are fully automated in flight. However, they will have a pilot for takeoff and landing, and in some countries there will be more supervision from a pilot.
Spooky Action has conducted trials with Verizon (VZ) and Orange (FNCTF), who used Telelift to provide internet at the French National Windsurfing Championships in Quiberon, France in November 2019. It is currently working with the non-profit organization WeRobotics, which provides advice to network providers in Africa.
It is worth noting that mobile access is growing rapidly in sub-Saharan Africa as the internet is extremely important for rural communities. However, maintaining infrastructure in sparsely populated areas is often unprofitable for networks.
Loon, a project run by Alphabet , is developing tennis-court-sized balloons that fly 12 miles high and can provide internet within a 25-mile radius. In 2018, Loon announced it was partnering with Kenya's Telkom to provide internet to areas of central Kenya.
Gokhan Inalhan, a professor of autonomy and artificial intelligence at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, told CNN that the Telelift looks like a “great product” for emergency response or search and rescue services. But he adds that continuous use could cause problems in extreme conditions. So improved engines and materials are needed for the drones to be able to cope with continuous operation combined with the African heat. Finally, Tiwari says that while some of his components are out of order, the moving parts he uses are specifically designed to be durable — and although they should be able to fly indefinitely, in practice, some of the drones will land during those times of day when there is less demand for internet.
