SAN DIEGO – Qualcomm Technologies and Facebook announced Monday they are working together to deliver high-speed internet connectivity with Facebook’s Terragraph through a multi-node wireless system based on 60GHz technology.
This terrestrial, super-fast Wi-Fi “aims to improve the speed, efficiency and quality of internet connectivity around the world at only a fraction of the cost of fiber deployments,” reads the press release.
Qualcomm Technologies will integrate its chipsets with Terragraph’s technology. “This effort will help enable manufacturers to build 60GHz mmWave solutions using the unlicensed 60GHz spectrum and provide Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) to offer consumers in urban areas access to high-speed broadband connections. The companies expect to begin trials of the integrated solution mid-2019,” reads the release.
Of course, Terragraph will only serve urban areas and needs permission from cities to perch its gear on light poles, street furniture and other potential access points – and to partner with local ISPs to get backbone connectivity, so despite 2019 testing, this might not exactly be around the corner – especially with existing wireless carriers needing the same spots to place their 5G gear in coming months and years.
Local traffic light standards may well snap under the weight of all this potential new stuff hanging from them.
Click here for the full release and here for more on Terragraph.
