As part of its Terragraph Project, Facebook is teaming up with chip-manufacturer Qualcomm to bring high-speed wireless internet to dense urban areas.
Last year, Facebook announced its Terragraph Project, a “multi-node wireless system focused on bringing high-speed internet connectivity to dense urban areas.” The project comes as part of Facebook’s belief that everyone deserves a consistent, high-bandwidth internet experience, and that, unfortunately, there are many obstacles that hamper it. In developing economies, mobile networks are simply not fast enough. In developed economies, infrastructure is unable to keep up with the growth of the “exponential growth in the consumption of photos and video at higher and higher resolutions.”
With Terragraph, Facebook wants to solve these problems, simply by “utilizing commercial off-the-shelf components,” but also “leveraging the cloud for intensive data processing.” To do so, Facebook suggests the use of “V-band” or 60GHz at 200-250 meter intervals in populated areas. So now, the company is enlisting Qualcomm to help create the tech for the project.
Facebook plans to use Qualcomm’s chipsets with the Terragraph technology, allowing router manufacturers to upgrade their hardware to also send data at 60GHz. This will also broadband connections at hight speed. Terragraph’s solution is suited both for rural and for urban areas.
It’s not clear when Terragraph will go live with its technology, but tests will start later next year.
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