Wireless ISP Rapier Systems has today become one of the first broadband providers in the UK to deploy the new multi-Gigabit speed capable 60GHz cnWave (Terragraph) technology from Cambium Networks and Facebook, which is facilitated by Qualcomm’s latest 802.11ay (WiFi) compliant standard.
The “last mile” focused technology harnesses a mix of the 60GHz radio spectrum band and mesh style networking to help it overcome some of the usual distance limitations, which would otherwise be inherent to such a weak signal. The advantage of this is that it gives you a lot of spectrum frequency for data transfer, which is how multi-Gigabit speeds are achieved (such networks often still need to be fed by a high capacity fibre optic cable).
Admittedly this isn’t the first broadband technology to make use of the 60GHz band, but we’re still curious to see how it fairs and the first deployment of commercial kit in the UK is thus big news. Unfortunately, we don’t know precisely where Rapier System’s are doing this, only that it will aim to deliver speeds of up to 1000Mbps in a “very cost-effective manner, without the delays associated with fibre.”
Meanwhile over in the USA, Texas, another operator – NextLink – have just deployed their own trial of 60GHz cnWave and managed to achieve a download speed of 1.79Gbps and an upload of 1.83Gbps with just 2ms (milliseconds) of connection latency. Sadly, very little is known about the network setup and distances between distribution points of these deployments.
Richard Watson, MD of Rapier Systems, said:
“Rapier Systems is a long-standing partner of Cambium Networks and we are thrilled to be the first company in the UK to integrate the 60GHz cnWave equipment into our networks. The new solution makes wireless gigabit to the home and to businesses a reality and we are absolutely thrilled to be leading the multi-gigabit connectivity revolution in the UK.”
Atul Bhatnagar, Cambium Networks President and CEO, said:
“Our recent deployments around the world have proven that this new technology can dramatically increase the availability of broadband in underserved communities. It is nothing short of a breakthrough in the battle to bridge the digital divide.”
We have asked for a bit more detail about Rapier’s first UK deployment and will report back if they’re able to provide anything specific about the location and use case, but as we understand it their initial network is sharing 15Gbps of capacity between up to 30 end points. Meanwhile one other UK ISP, Boundless Networks, is also looking to deploy the technology.
Let’s hope the prices aren’t “rapier” compared to the competition.
Having deployed 60Ghz PTP links that would have otherwise been fibre between buildings, we managed to achieve 1.2Gbps with HIGHLY directional aerials from the MetroLinq range (You need a sniper rifle style scope to properly align them).
Rated for distances less than 500m for >1Gbps throughput with highly directional aerials makes me think the real world performance of these for any sensible distances would make it a bit of a gimmick Vs a modern 5Ghz 4×4 PTP link that could easily hit >1Gbps PHY.
Looks like dundee. Its just PR Rubbish is my guess