Facebook maps hundred of millions of homes
Facebook is mapping hundreds of millions of homes using image-recognition technology and satellite data, along with government census numbers. The project is part of an effort to understand how populations are distributed, to work out how best to get them online. The company has identified every human-built structure in 23 countries, showing that just under 50% of people live in cities, but 99% of them live within 63km of one. Bridging this gap may require a mixture of terrestrial internet links and satellite connections, which the company is calling an 'internet of the sky'.

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Facebook has managed to map hundreds of millions of people’s homes to within five metres.

The company has been using image-recognition technology, government census numbers and data gathered by space satellites to pinpoint every human-built structure in 23 countries.

It’s been trying to figure out how populations around the world are distributed.

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Facebook’s goal is to get as many people connected to the internet as possible, and finding out where so many people live is a major achievement.

In a blog post published last year, Facebook Connectivity Lab communications systems scientist Tobias Tiecke said the people and homes being mapped in the 23 countries cover “about one third of the world population”.

These countries include Kenya, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Haiti and South Africa.

“From this preliminary analysis, we've determined that slightly less than 50% of the population lives in cities,” he revealed at the time.

“However, 99% of the population lives within 63 km of the nearest city. Hence, if we are able to develop communication technologies that can bridge 63 km with sufficiently high data rates, we should be able to connect 99% of the population in these 23 countries.”

The company is trying to determine the best ways to get different people in different places online.

“Short-range access networks such as Wi-Fi hotspots are suitable for people living close together, while cellular technologies are better for regions where people live farther apart, in isolated houses,” Mr Tiecke and Andreas Gros have explained.

“Additionally, knowing how communities are located in relation to one another is important for planning backhaul networks — the links to the internet backbone. Villages lined up along a river or road could be connected by a string of terrestrial point-to-point links, while scattered settlements might require an aerial backhaul solution such as unmanned aerial vehicles or satellites.”

CNBC reports that Janna Lewis, Facebook's head of strategic innovation partnerships and sourcing, seems especially keen on satellites.

“Satellites are exciting for us. Our data showed the best way to connect cities is an internet in the sky,” she said. “We're trying to connect people from the stratosphere and from space.”