Facebook open sources wireless gear

Facebook created a global computing system faster than any of its peers by working with crowds of outside engineers, patent-free. Now it wants to do the same thing with the world's wireless communications technology.

On Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, the company planned to announce the Telecom Infra Project, an organisation of Facebook and several telecommunications service providers and gear makers that will collaborate on making new technologies, particularly around access to and transmission and management of high-speed wireless data. "There are a lot of technologies that are taking too long to deploy" because they are made from specialised parts, said Jay Parikh, vice president for engineering and infrastructure at Facebook. In particular, he mentioned LTE, or long-term evolution, and so-called 5G, or fifth-generation, wireless technologies. Both LTE and 5G have features for handling lots of callers, or sending data-heavy content like video over the air.

In addition to Facebook, members of the Infra Project include Intel, Nokia, Deutsche Telekom and SK Telecom. Each has its own reasons to work on the project, but in general the carriers are looking for cheaper equipment that can be easily programmed and deployed, while Intel and Nokia are looking to add sales.

Facebook "is trying to deliver immersive applications, like video, live-streaming and virtual reality," Parikh said. "It will help us build services we want that are globally accessible."

There are reasons to see how the project can work. Facebook introduced the Open Compute Project, dedicated to open sourcing hardware and software for data centres, in 2011, and has built out a network of big computing systems that rivals proprietary efforts by Google and Amazon in less time and probably at a lower cost. Facebook claims it saved $2 billion in three years of deployment because of Open Compute.

Part of Facebook's goal is to deliver 5G experiences in the developing world as well as in rich countries. To that end, the move shows that the company is committed to building out its user base and service offerings in every country. This is proving harder than Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief, may have imagined. Recently regulators in India blocked a proposed program to offer free but limited Internet access.

The program, called Free Basics, promised a text-only version of Facebook, along with certain news, health, job and other sites. It is offered in 38 countries. By pursuing cheaper connectivity with the Infra Project, Facebook appears to be seeking other ways to grow.

©2016 The New York Times News Service