(Taara)
Project Taara, a potential Starlink rival, is spinning off from Google’s parent Alphabet to become its own company.
On Monday, Taara officially graduated from Alphabet's “Moonshot factory” after operating as a research project for at least five years. The new company is recruiting partners such as internet service providers to deploy its technology, which promises to deliver high-speed internet to rural and remote areas.
“In the same way fiber optic cables in the ground use light to carry data, Taara uses narrow, invisible light beams to transmit information through the air, at speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second,” the company said in Monday’s announcement. Taara also noted it's been testing its technology with T-Mobile and Vodafone.
(Taara)Taara is targeting the same markets as SpaceX’s Starlink, which has already attracted over 5 million users across the globe. But instead of using orbiting satellites, Taara plans on harnessing ground-based light beam beams that can deliver gigabit internet speeds.
The company’s device, dubbed the Taara Lightbridge, can transmit the internet data across a distance of 20 kilometers in range. Importantly, the system promises to be easy to deploy since the equipment can be placed on existing cell towers.
(Taara)“Installation is completed in hours, not days —all without digging, spectrum licensing or right-of-way permitting,” Taara said over its new website. This means ISPs and governments won’t need to spend millions on laying the optical fiber, which can be especially costly for rural and mountainous terrain.
Taara didn’t say how much funding it raised. But the company has received financial backing from the San Francisco-based Series X Capital and Alphabet, which is taking a minority stake in Taara, according to The Financial Times. In addition, Taara is hiring for 14 positions when the team itself is currently made up of over two dozen staffers.
Whether Taara’s technology will be adopted in the US remains unclear. But last month, Taara revealed it’s made major progress in miniaturizing the company’s technology into a “silicon photonic chip.” The results promise to make the Lightbridge easier to install. The company plans on launching the new chip sometime next year.
As part of Taara's development, the project has also deployed its Lightbridge links in more than a dozen countries.