By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Leading Wi-Fi and wireless network solution vendor Cambium Networks announced today that they will be incorporating Facebook’s Terragraph technology into a new series of Cambium Networks 60 GHz radio products called cnWave™. The news comes as Terragraph appears to be ramping up go-to-market activities with trials underway in Hungary and most recently in Malaysia.
Facebook appears to be strongly ramping up go-to-market activities for Terragraph with the selection of one more technology and implementation partner in Cambium Networks. And the linkup between Terragraph and Cambium could turn out very nicely: Cambium is known for low-cost, high-performance wireless networks often deployed among challenger ISPs or in emerging markets.
The new 60 GHz system will be a strong addition to Cambium Network’s growing portfolio of wireless infrastructure solutions spanning transmission distances from a few feet to hundreds of kilometres, many of them using unlicensed bands for point-to-point or point-to-multipoint operation. Facebook has previously announced Terragraph technology partnership agreements with Nokia and Radwin.
Industry confidence and interest in mmWave systems using 60 GHz unlicensed bands appear to be strongly on the rise. Last week Canada-based chipset vendor Peraso – who supplies among others backhaul radio vendor IgniteNet – announced $42M USD of new financing. Other current 60 GHz radio vendors include Siklu, Sivers IMA, Blu Wireless, and Qualcomm.
Terragraph is essentially a 60 GHz-based meshed (or multi-hop, multi-point) backhaul radio system for deployment at street level in cities. Also announced today: San Francisco-based ISP Common has (according to Light Reading here) actually purchased Terragraph equipment for commercial deployment. Cambium is already an approved Wi-Fi access point supplier to Facebook’s Wi-Fi program, known as Facebook Express Wi-Fi.
Facebook’s connectivity program – including Terragraph, Express Wi-Fi, and others – is today headed up by former Ruckus Wireless President & CEO, Dan Rabinovitsj.
/Claus.
