Facebook and Google are officially in a race to connect the rest of the world to the internet -- and both companies are working on surprising means to do it. On Friday, Facebook released new details about its initiative, called Internet.org.

"In our effort to connect the whole world with Internet.org, we've been working on ways to beam internet to people from the sky," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in a post announcing a new research white paper from Internet.org. "Today, we're sharing some details of the work Facebook's Connectivity Lab is doing to build drones, satellites and lasers to deliver the internet to everyone."

The paper goes into extensive detail showing how the Connectivity Lab has mapped out the strengths and weaknesses of various internet-broadcasting technologies, including the solar-powered drones designed by Ascenta, a small U.K. company that helped develop the longest-flying solar-powered drone, which Facebook just bought.

The 11-page research paper also shows how Internet.org is working to leverage each unique advantage with satellites, lasers, and drones to make up for the disadvantages from each other.

For Google, its unconventional method to deliver internet to regions that have never had it uses solar powered, high-altitude, high-pressure weather balloons that stay in the stratosphere and beam down signals to special antennae below. Google calls it Project Loon, and it's one of the company's futuristic "moonshot" projects.


Both Facebook and Google's projects aim to expand the internet to populations in developing countries that have not yet been connected through technologies that would side-step the usual process of developing infrastructure on the ground -- obviating the need to work closely with local governments, obtain land-use permissions, and physically build the a framework for the internet in many places where roads and plumbing are not yet common.

Both companies believe expanding internet access can be a road to economic development, and frame their projects in an altruistic tone -- despite detractors like Bill Gates, who thinks internet access for developing countries is not as important as basic assistance, like providing healthcare. "When you're dying of malaria, I suppose you'll look up and see that balloon, and I'm not sure how it'll help you," said Gates. "When a kid gets diarrhea, no, there's no website that relieves that." And despite the implied altruism, both companies do have a lot to gain by being the first company to provide the internet to the two-thirds of the planet that haven't been exposed to it yet.

Google is ahead of Facebook when it comes to actually implementing new, wacky internet-broadcasting technologies (Facebook announced some progress in expanding the internet in Paraguay and the Philippines, but those were ordinary partnerships with mobile companies). Project Loon is in a trial right now, with Google balloons beaming internet down to volunteer testers in New Zealand, and Google plans to expand its balloon network to cover the entire 40th parallel in the Southern Hemisphere this year.

As of right now, Facebook is still in the research phase, but clearly, Facebook has shown this week that its research is serious. Zuckerberg's company, however, hasn't given a roll-out date for any of these internet expansion methods, and some parts of its plan, like the satellites, will take a lot of investment and time before their ready for primetime.

The race to connect the whole world to the internet is on. Whoever gets there first gets 4 billion (give or take) new customers.