(Credit: Taara)
A startup spun off from Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has debuted a tiny device that can beam fiber-like internet speeds over the air to bring broadband to remote areas.
The 17-pound Taara Beam looks like a projector but is designed to beam up to 25Gbps of internet data using near-infrared light over distances of up to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). The system can be installed on cell towers or on the opposite sides of buildings.
The device comes from Taara, a startup that graduated from Alphabet’s “moonshot factory” to become its own company last year. Taara envisions using its technology to beam fiber internet speeds through the air, offering a cheaper alternative to laying costly optical fiber on the ground.
Taara’s system could also serve as an alternative to SpaceX’s Starlink, which uses orbiting satellites to deliver high-speed internet, primarily to users in rural and remote areas. That said, Taara is trying to sell its technology to ISPs and carriers, rather than directly to consumers.
The new Taara Beam is about 50% smaller than the startup’s earlier “Lightbridge” device, which has a throughput of up to 20Gbps and weighs nearly 29 pounds.
(Credit: Taara)Taara teased the smaller Beam device a year ago, after announcing it had developed a chip that would support more compact equipment. On the downside, Beam can only transmit up to 10km, down from the 20km range of standard Lightbridge. Still, the smaller device promises to make the technology easier to deploy and help it gain more adoption.
“It can be deployed on rooftops, poles, or existing infrastructure in hours, without trenching, spectrum licensing, or right-of-way permits,” the startup wrote in a blog post. “Where traditional infrastructure is slow or impractical to build, Beam provides a faster, more flexible alternative.”
(Credit: Taara)The company also views Taara Beam as a way for ISPs and mobile carriers to increase network capacity on “urban rooftops, enterprise campuses, data center clusters, and event venues.” Beam can be used with Lightbridge to provide internet across a city or neighborhood.
A key challenge facing Taara is that inclement weather, such as fog, can disrupt an over-the-air fiber beam. But a week ago, the startup announced the “Lightbridge Pro” system, which promises to offer a “99.999%” uptime, even during bad weather.
Taara plans to showcase new technologies at next week’s MWC in Barcelona, giving the company a chance to attract potential enterprise customers. There’s no word on the Beam’s exact cost. But the company told PCMag: “We offer various pricing models, both hardware and connectivity-as-a-service, and pricing varies by geography to meet partners where they are.”
In the meantime, Taara says its technology is already “deployed in over 20 countries with partners including T-Mobile, SoftBank, Airtel, and Digicel.” T-Mobile is using Lightbridge at music and balloon festivals to help it bolster the capacity of the surrounding 5G connectivity. Google’s GFiber has also been testing the tech.