Penang Is The First Asian City To Run Facebook's High-Speed Wireless Internet Technology
Terragraph is cheaper and greener compared to existing Internet structures.
By Alyssa J. Oon — 19 Feb 2019, 12:38 PM
George Town, Penang will be the first city in Asia to run a six-month trial of Facebook's new wireless Internet technology - Terragraph
The project was brought to Penang by YTL Communications, in collaboration with Facebook.
After Hungary, Malaysia is the second country in the world to run trials for the new technology.
The Facebook-developed technology aims to bring Internet connectivity to urban areas that would make it difficult to lay down fibre optic cables
In a UNESCO-listed city like George Town, laying down fibre optic cables would be difficult and possibly damaging to its historical infrastructure.
According to SoyaCincau, Terragraph can provide a city with high-speed broadband access by simply attaching small nodes to existing city infrastructure, such as street lamps, traffic lights, and utility poles.
A speedtest conducted during the official launch showed Terragraph reaching speeds of up to 1.3Gbps downloads and 1.7Gbps uploads.
Besides being cheaper, flexible, and less time-consuming to implement, Terragraph is also greener.
"It is extremely green - a single Terragraph node consumes the same amount of electricity as an LED streetlamp," YTL Communications chief executive officer Wing K. Lee told The Star.
The pilot project will be carried out for a total of six months from 1 March
During this period, there will be free high-speed WiFi available to the public within the city.
Selected trial users within the coverage area will also be provided with free Fixed Wireless Access.