Alphabet, the parent company of tech giant Google, is picking up a fresh fight with Elon Musk’s Starlink as Google’s Taara Lightbridge takes on Starlink with laser-powered internet.
Taara Lightbridge, a project originally developed under its X “moonshot” division, will become a standalone company, challenging Starlink in the race to connect underserved regions with high-speed internet.
Taara’s selling point? It uses Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) technology to beam high-speed internet through light over long distances, unlike satellite broadband.
The move, announced on Monday, March 17, signals Alphabet’s renewed push into connectivity solutions after the closure of its Project Loon balloon venture in 2021.
Taara, led by CEO Mahesh Krishnaswamy, is targeting 3 billion people globally, including 860 million in Africa without reliable internet access. The company will compete directly with Starlink, which has amassed over 5 million subscribers across 125 countries.
While still in testing, Taara is operational in 12 countries globally and is now focusing on scaling its operations across Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria.
The global push for more affordable, high-speed internet solutions has become a priority for multinational tech companies as demand surges. Yet fiber-optic infrastructure remains underdeveloped in many regions, hindering access. Its expensive and complex deployment, especially in challenging terrains, has driven the need for alternative solutions.
Taara Lightbridge functions like an invisible fiber-optic cable in the sky. Instead of transmitting light through glass fibers, it sends narrow beams of light through the air, achieving speeds up to 20 gigabits per second over distances of up to 20 kilometers.
This method takes advantage of light’s shorter wavelength than radio waves, allowing it to carry more data at higher speeds. However, light-based communication requires line-of-sight connectivity, meaning that obstacles like fog, rain, or buildings can disrupt the signal.
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To overcome this, Taara has developed advanced AI-driven mirror systems that detect, track, and maintain precise alignment between two connected units, ensuring a stable connection.
“We have this sophisticated set of mirrors that searches for this light signal, and the moment they find it, they lock in,” Krishnaswamy said while explaining Taara on Google’s Moonshot Podcast on Monday. “The team created a traffic light-sized box to house the laser that could be mounted on a rooftop or cell tower.”
Early deployments have demonstrated the technology’s potential. In India, Taara was successfully tested on cell towers to connect buildings in urban environments. In Africa, it bridged the Congo River in Central Africa, linking Kinshasa and Brazzaville, where traditional sub-river fibre deployment was deemed impractical.
Taara will work with internet service providers, telecom companies like Liquid Telecoms, a subsidiary of Cassava Technologies, a pan-African technology group, and governments, to extend connectivity to rural villages, disaster-stricken areas, and regions where traditional infrastructure is not feasible.
While fibre optic cables remain the backbone of traditional internet networks, their deployment is often uneconomical in remote or challenging terrains.
Taara’s ground-based approach offers a potentially more cost-effective alternative to satellite constellations, requiring less energy and avoiding the launch and maintenance costs associated with space-based systems.
Krishnaswamy said the Taara team has come up with a solution that requires taking the Taara terminal, which is the size of a traffic light, and shrinking it down to the size of a fingernail. This is meant to reduce the cost of deployment.
“You could have the small little devices on everybody’s home with no speed breaks anywhere in between, at a fraction of the cost of the terminals, and without the time and challenges of trenching fibre,” he said.
While Starlink looks to the stars, Taara’s aiming for a laser-focused victory on the ground.
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