Facebook, on 21 May, was reported to have enlisted US-based chipmaker Qualcomm to provide the technology for its gigabit Wi-Fi project that the social media giant announced during its annual developer conference in 2016, IANS reported.
"This is a solution for both rural and urban areas that simply have spotty Wi-Fi in certain regions," The Verge quoted a Qualcomm spokesperson as saying.
The "gigabit Wi-Fi project" was launched as part of Facebook's multi-node wireless Terragraph system that was meant to focus on improving high speed connectivity to dense urban areas. Facebook has not given any official information, but field tests are expected to begin in the middle of next year.
With Qualcomm chipsets being integrated to the "Terragraph" technology, manufacturers would be able to upgrade routers and increase broadband data-sending frequency up to 60GHz.
Facebook had said in a blogpost in 2016 that Terragraph's reduced interference and ability to operate in conditions that have been hard to connect with, which increases customer reach.
With this technology, Facebook believes offering high-speed internet in any conditions; rainstorm or heat will be possible.
"For customers or business in multi-dwelling units or high-rises, the 'Terragraph system' can be externally attached to a building and connected to an in-building ethernet data network," the company had said.
Combined with Wi-Fi access points, Facebook claimed that Terragraph is one of the lowest-cost solutions to achieve 100 percent street-level coverage of "gigabit Wi-Fi, offering speeds up to 6GB/sec.
In addition to working with Facebook for the Wi-Fi project, Qualcomm is actively involved in the roll out of 5G connectivity by 2020. The chipmaker has claimed to have partnered with multiple mobile brands, to offer high-speed mobile internet to the consumers.
Facebook, on the other hand, has a few issues to sort out for itself. Prior to the Cambridge Analytica saga, the social networking giant was criticised for its walled-garden internet platform called Internet.org which was categorically rejected by the government of India.
(Source: IANS)
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