Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) stratospheric balloons failed to offer internet service to rural and distant places.
The startup now uses light beams to bring internet to remote locations.
Taara is part of Alphabet’s X innovation lab, known as the “Moonshot Factory.” Company executives stated it began in 2016 when stratospheric balloons failed to offer internet due to excessive prices.
Mahesh reported better development this time. Krishnaswamy leads Taara.
Taara officials and Bharti Airtel (BRTI.NS), one of India’s leading telecoms and internet providers, told Reuters they are deploying the new laser internet technology in India. Financial information was withheld.
Krishnaswamy said Taara has partnered with Econet Group and Liquid Telecom in Africa, Bluetown in India, and Digicel in the Pacific Islands to connect internet services in 13 countries, including Australia, Kenya, and Fiji.
“We are trying to be one of the cheapest and most affordable places where you would be able to get dollar per gigabyte to the end consumers,” he said.
Taara’s traffic light-sized equipment beams the data-carrying laser. Airtel partners use the devices to develop communications infrastructure in remote areas.
While working on Loon, a failed balloon internet project that used lasers to connect balloons, Krishnaswamy had an insight.
“We call this moonshot composting,” said Astro Teller, X’s “captain of moonshots.”
Alphabet’s science-fiction research section is X. Waymo, Wing, and Verily Life Sciences were founded. “Taara is moving more data every single day than Loon did in its entire history,” added Teller.
Randeep Sekhon, Bharti Airtel’s CTO, said Taara will also speed up internet in developed countries cities. Beaming data between buildings is cheaper than burying fiber-optic cables. “I think this is disruptive,” he remarked.
Krishnaswamy installed Taara equipment in Osur, three hours south of Chennai, where he spent his boyhood summers. He stated Osur would get high-speed internet this summer.
“There’s hundreds of thousands of these villages across India,” he remarked. “I’m excited to see how this technology can bring everyone online.”
Digitizing India cost Google $10 billion in July 2020. It bought 1.28% of Bharti Airtel for $700 million last year. Alphabet’s X and Google are sister firms, but Taara’s agreement with Bharti Airtel is unrelated.
“I acknowledge the concept that the Internet is imperfect,” Teller said, “but I would suggest that’s maybe the subject of a different moonshot to improve the internet’s content.”
