Facebook Announces Two Wireless Projects Terragraph, ARIES To Bring Internet To Rural, Metropolitan Areas
ByFacebook plants to improve network access globally by using two wireless projects called Terragraph and ARIES. However, the social network giant said that they won't be building the networks but will be using internet service providers and carriers.
The projects were unveiled during the second day of Facebook's F8 conference in San Francisco. The company revealed that both Terragraph and Project ARIES will be using terrestrial antennas using a different approach to deliver faster and cheaper internet connection to metropolitan and especially rural areas.
USA Today reports that the projects are to ultimately meet their goals of connecting the world together. Half of the world doesn't have access to computers or Internet and more than 1.5 billion people aren't near range of viable data network.
Facebook only works on connectivity projects that make the Internet at least 10x quicker or 10x cheaper. #f8 pic.twitter.com/Nmy1ZCAdFk
— Hannah Kuchler (@hannahkuchler) April 13, 2016
Terragraph technology aims to bring high-speed Internet connection in population dense urban cities. This means that a whole building could be connected through the technology. Tech Crunch reports that a pilot project for Terragraph will be implemented in San Jose, California this year.
Project ARIES stands for Antenna Radio Integration for Efficiency in Spectrum. It is still in early development phase. It is aimed at allowing as many data as it can in the smallest bandwidth in great transmission distances. Through ARIES more people can be in a network even those in rural areas are aimed to be connected.
"We are interested in developing this technology to harness the incredible gains in providing communications to rural communities from city centers," Neeraj Choubey and Ali Yazdan Panah of Facebook said as reported by Economic Times. "The hope with systems such as these is that costly rural infrastructure can be avoided while still providing high-speed connectivity."
What do you think of Facebook's initiative to deliver fast and cheap internet around the world? Do you think Terragraph and Project ARIES will finally connect the entire world online? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
