Google parent company Alphabet has already tried and failed to use high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere to provide internet access to rural and remote areas.
However, the business is now using light beams to provide internet service in outlying areas. Google parent company Alphabet’s X innovation center, also known as the “Moonshot Factory,” initiated the Taara project in 2016 . It was after encountering high costs and problems with using stratospheric balloons to deliver internet. This is according to company executives. This time around, things are progressing better, said Mahesh
Taara executives and Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest telecommunications and internet providers, told Reuters they are now moving toward larger-scale deployment of the new laser internet technology in India. Financial details were not disclosed.
Taara is helping to link up internet services in 13 countries so far . It includes Australia, Kenya and Fiji, said Krishnaswamy. In addition, it has struck deals with Econet Group and its subsidiary Liquid Telecom in Africa, internet provider Bluetown in India and Digicel in the Pacific Islands.
“We are trying to be one of the cheapest and the most affordable place where you would be able to get dollar per gigabyte to the end consumers,” he said.
Taara’s machine is the size of traffic lights that beam the laser carrying the data . Essentially fiber-optic internet without the cables. Partners like Airtel use the machines to build out communications infrastructure. This is in hard-to-reach places.
Krishnaswamy said he had an epiphany while working on the failed balloon internet project Loon . It used lasers for connecting data between balloons, and brought that technology to the ground.