Meta shuts down its Connectivity division after almost a decade

Meta’s shuttering its Connectivity arm nearly 10 years after launching the initiative, according to a report from Light Reading. The firm confirmed to each Light Reading and Fierce Wireless that it’s going to as an alternative break up the division throughout its Infrastructure and Central Products groups.

Meta Connectivity (previously Facebook Connectivity) launched in 2013 with the aim of getting extra individuals on-line so they might use the corporate’s social networks. Through the initiative, the corporate developed after which shut down a venture that concerned autonomous, high-flying drones beaming the web to underserved elements of the world. It additionally labored on making a Starlink-like web system utilizing low Earth orbit satellites, however the employees growing it had been picked up by Amazon final 12 months.

As famous by Light Reading, Meta Connectivity’s shutdown shouldn’t have an effect on the corporate’s involvement within the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), which Meta helped found in 2016. The TIP is a bunch of telecom corporations, service suppliers, and connectivity stakeholders that helps promote the event of recent telecom infrastructure. Dan Rabinovitsj, the previous head of Meta Connectivity, remains to be with the corporate, though it’s unclear if he’ll transfer to a different division.