Facebook's internet beaming drone Aquila is not headed to India

Facebook is committed at bringing internet access to much of India, but the social giant won’t be using its Aquila drone to achieve it in the country.

The high-altitude, solar-powered unmanned drone, designed to beam internet to remote parts of the world, isn’t headed to India, Umang Bedi, Managing Director, for Facebook in India and South Asia noted at a round table discussion on Wednesday.

"Aquila is one of our connectivity efforts, which I think, is an experiment for the US only. It’s got nothing to do with India; there was some speculation, but that was speculation only,” Bedi told FactorDaily, refuting claims made in a recent media report.

The Economic Times, citing a Facebook executive, reported earlier this month that the company had been in talks with the Indian government and telecom companies for potential programs to bring Aquila in India.

Aquila weighs less than a car, consumes just 5,000 Watts of energy, and is intended to fly for months on a stretch. "Our goal is to have a fleet of Aquilas flying together at 60,000 feet, communicating with each other with lasers and staying aloft for months at a time -- something that’s never been done before," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July, shortly after the announcing the first "successful" flight of Aquila in Yuma, Arizona.

Many people were expecting Facebook to bring Aquila in India, especially in the wake of ban on Free Basics in India. The initiative, which is aimed at offering select internet services to people, was banned by the Indian government earlier this year on the grounds of violation of net neutrality. The company has since begun looking at alternatives to get India's untapped market to the internet.

One such alternative is Express WiFi, which aims at collaborating with internet service providers and local entrepreneurs to set up public Wi-Fi networks in places with poor internet connectivity.

“We have existing partnerships with operators and other entities, and we're always in conversation with them," a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable India. "But it's early days and we need to make sure the technology works first."

Earlier this week, the American National Transportation Safety opened an investigation into an accident during the drone’s first "successful" test flight, where it suffered structural damage.