Google buys skybox to beam the internet from space

Google has announced it will be spending over $1 billion on a fleet of satellites in a bid to increase global Internet outreach.

On June 10, the tech giant purchased Skybox Imaging Inc. – a 5-year old start-up based in Mountain View – for $500 million cash, as it plans to offer affordable and high-speed Internet services to locations that currently lack adequate fiber optic cabling infrastructure. Skybox has designed small, relatively inexpensive satellites that can collect photos and video of the Earth daily, and Google aims to make use of this technology to facilitate its project to make Internet access available to every corner of the Earth.

Google is not the only company actively pursuing the improvement of its services via space capabilities. Facebook has revealed that it is building a squadron of drones that operate on solar cells to enhance the availability of the Facebook application to a wider audience.

What may sound like technology out of a science-fiction novel is in reality already functional; Google has begun using these satellites. Project Loon, a Google initiative, uses balloons to act as high-altitude ISPs that float in the stratosphere, about 30 kilometers above the Earth’s surface, “to connect people in remote locations, help fill coverage gaps and bring people back online after disasters.” Greg Wyler, founder of satellite start-up O3b Networks, Ltd. – a company Google is invested in – runs this project.

With this acquisition, roughly 120 employees of Skybox will now work with Google Maps, vastly improving its map application. The $0.5 billion deal is seen to be highly profitable to Google, as the company now boasts of technology even NASA does not possess – yet.