Alphabet’s Taara Takes Aim at Starlink with Laser Internet Play
Summary:
Imagine shooting lasers to beam internet across mountains, rivers, and deserts—Alphabet’s Taara is making this sci-fi dream a real-world competitor to Starlink. Backed by Google’s parent, Taara is now gunning for federal BEAD funds, determined to redefine the rural broadband race with laser precision.
Key Takeaways:
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Taara, an Alphabet spinoff, uses laser beams to deliver high-speed internet over vast distances, aiming to rival Starlink.
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The startup is pursuing BEAD federal funding to expand in the US, having already transmitted 1.6 petabytes of data across 30 miles in Africa.
Alphabet’s Taara, born from Google X, is quietly reshaping the rural internet market with its laser-based internet delivery system. While Elon Musk’s Starlink captures headlines with satellite broadband, Taara is proving that beaming data via light can bypass the heavy cost and environmental disruptions of laying fiber.
Interesting facts:
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Taara’s system successfully transmitted 1.6 petabytes of data over nearly 30 miles in Africa, demonstrating it can handle the bandwidth demands needed for modern connectivity.
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The startup is targeting the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) federal funding, which prioritizes unserved and underserved areas.
Using free-space optical communications, Taara's lasers can deliver 20 Gbps speeds without the latency issues of satellites and without the cost of trenching fiber through rugged terrain. This technology is not only cheaper to deploy but can also quickly bring high-speed internet to areas that have waited decades for reliable broadband.
The US broadband landscape is becoming fiercely competitive, and Alphabet’s Taara is betting that precision laser internet can become the dark horse. By avoiding the complex licensing and ground station infrastructure of Starlink while ensuring line-of-sight connectivity, Taara positions itself as a nimble, scalable alternative for rural ISPs looking to close the digital divide efficiently.
If successful in securing BEAD funds, Taara could establish a new standard for rural internet delivery, enabling communities to leapfrog into the future without the long delays of traditional infrastructure rollouts.
While Starlink looks up to space, Taara is looking straight ahead, using laser precision to deliver high-speed internet and disrupt rural broadband markets. As Alphabet’s ambitious moonshot steps into the funding arena, it may soon reshape the conversation on how the world connects—one beam of light at a time.
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