Magyar Telekom in Hungary and Telenor's Malaysian subsidiary Digi will be the first to test the Terragraph technology developed by Facebook to deliver fixed-wireless broadband services over mmWave spectrum. Facebook announced that it has completed the initial engineering validation of Terragraph, and the next phase will be to start field trials.
Deutsche Telekom is actively evaluating millimeter-wave technology use across Europe, and its subsidiary Magyar Telekom will deploy a Terragraph field trial in the Budapest area. Faceboook is also partnering with Telenor to conduct a Terragraph production field trial in Kuala Lumpur, following Telenor joining the Telecom Infra Project (TIP).
Facebook has been working with Deutsche Telekom through the TIP mmWave Networks project group to develop the technology. The company also announced at Mobile World Congress a partnership with Nokia to develop network equipment for the system, based on Nokia's work on WPON, while Intel and Radwin will deliver a reference design for Terragraph-certified 60 GHz equipment for service providers based on the Intel architecture.
Facebook said the work will extend beyond Terragraph to address the broader mmWave market. Technologies utilizing the high frequencies require precise line-of-sight planning to avoid interference. To address these challenges, the company is leveraging computer vision and network optimization models to identify which street furniture — city infrastructure such as traffic lights and stop signs — can be used to deploy these new networks.
