Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has disclosed that the company is providing internet connection to remote places using light beams.
The Taara project is a component of Alphabet’s X innovation centre, often known as the “Moonshot Factory.”
It was started in 2016 after attempts to supply internet via stratospheric balloons were unsuccessful due to expensive prices, according to business executives.
According to Taara chief, Krishnaswamy, Taara has agreements with internet service provider Bluetown in India, internet service provider Econet Group and its subsidiary Liquid Telecom in Africa, and Digicel in the Pacific Islands. Taara is assisting in connecting internet services in 13 countries thus far, including Australia, Kenya, and Fiji.
Taara’s device, which is roughly equivalent to fiber-optic internet but without the connections, is the size of a traffic light and beams the laser carrying the data.
The devices are used by partners like Airtel to erect communications infrastructure in challenging locations.
The research arm of Alphabet called X works on projects with science-fiction overtones.
Waymo, a self-driving technology company, Wing, a drone delivery business, and the health technology venture Verily Life Sciences were all born out of it.
“Taara is moving more data every single day than Loon did in its entire history,” Astro Teller, who leads X said.
Randeep Sekhon, the chief technical officer of Bharti Airtel, stated that Taara will also aid in delivering speedier internet service in urban regions of industrialised nations. He claimed that beaming data between structures is less expensive than burying fiber-optic cables. “I think this is really disruptive,” he said.