Taara
Fast, abundant, affordable connectivity using beams of light
Taara’s mission is to bring fast, affordable and abundant connectivity to people everywhere, using beams of light. The team partners with telecommunications companies, internet service providers, governments and community organizations worldwide to accelerate the deployment of high-speed, high-capacity connectivity to people globally. They also collaborate with academics, researchers and innovators to explore new applications for Taara. If you’re interested in collaborating, please get in touch.
Taara being installed in rural India
The Connectivity Gap
Nearly 3 billion people remain unconnected to the internet, and billions more struggle with slow, unreliable or expensive connectivity. Fiber is the gold standard for high-speed connectivity, but it's often unsuitable because it's costly, impractical, or geographically impossible. Where fiber fails to reach, operators and service providers often turn to radio frequency to fill the gap. However, traditional radio frequency bands are congested and running out of available bandwidth, making it harder to support 5G expansion and keep up the growing global demand for fast, reliable connectivity.
“As demand for data soars, existing connectivity solutions are reaching their limits. What if we could harness the power of light to deliver a better, faster, more efficient connection, without the need for cables?”
- Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Taara General Manager
Video: Taara's founder, Mahesh Krishnaswamy, shares how Taara is connecting communities around the world.
Reimagining the Future of Connectivity
Taara’s journey began with a bold question: could we harness the speed of light to deliver data without the need for cables? Inspired by Loon’s breakthrough establishing connectivity between two stratospheric balloons, the Taara team set out to see if they could apply some of this technology to help solve connectivity problems closer to Earth.
Like a fiber network in the sky, Taara delivers high-speed, high-capacity connectivity over long distances without the time, cost, and hassle involved with deploying fiber.
The Speed of Fiber and the Flexibility of Wireless
Working closely with partners and learning from pilots worldwide, the team developed a robust new approach to wireless optical communications. Just as traditional fiber uses light to carry data through cables, Taara uses light to transmit information as very narrow, invisible beams. These beams are sent between two small Taara units to create a link.
By extending fiber networks, Taara brings fiber-like speeds to areas where it’s too costly, difficult or unsafe to install fiber—such as dense cities, over rivers or across rugged terrains.
The Taara Lightbridge uses beams of light to carry data between two terminals. A two-mirror system and predictive algorithms keeps the beams precisely aligned.
The Taara Lightbridge
Taara’s first product, Taara Lightbridge, can transmit data at speeds of up to 20 gigabits per second over distances of up to 20 kilometers. Each Taara Lightbridge uses a system of mirrors, sensors, precision optics and smart software to mechanically align the beam with precision. When two beams find each other, they lock together to form a secure link to transmit data.
Network operators and service providers can rapidly deploy and redeploy Taara links to bring connectivity to new areas, provide backup to existing infrastructure, or deliver temporary bandwidth to crowded events and even cities. By eliminating the need for wiring and cabling, Taara bypasses right-of-way licensing and can be installed in hours rather than the days, months or even years it can take to lay fiber.
Taara Share
Early in their journey, the Taara team realized that bridging the digital divide would require social and business model innovations—not just technological innovations.
After seeing customers reselling Taara bandwidth during an early deployment in Kenya, the team created Taara Share, a software platform that makes it easy for internet service providers to divide connectivity into pay-as-you-go micro-transactions. This model allows local entrepreneurs to resell bandwidth directly to people in their communities and share the revenue.
Video: Taara Share in Nima, Ghana
The Next Leap in Light-Based Innovation
To reduce the cost and complexity of Taara's technology, the team developed a silicon photonic chip that uses light to transmit high-speed data through the air.
Unlike the Taara Lightbridge—which relies on a system of mirrors, sensors, and hardware—Taara’s chip uses software to steer, track and correct the beam of light without bulky moving parts. The chip takes the core functionality of the Taara Lightbridge—which is the size of a traffic light—and shrinks it down to the size of a fingernail.
During lab tests, the team successfully transmitted 10 Gbps (gigabits per second) of data over 1 kilometer outdoors using two Taara chips. This is the first time silicon photonics chips have achieved such high-capacity data transmission at this range. The team is working to extend both the chip’s range and capacity by developing an iteration with thousands of emitters.
A prototype of the Taara chip
Taara Today
Since launching Taara in 2017, the team has deployed hundreds of links in more than a dozen countries. Some of Taara’s partners include T-Mobile in the U.S. providing backhaul for big events; Airtel in India in urban areas where fiber can’t be deployed; and Liquid Intelligent Technologies in Africa, which has rolled out Taara's wireless optical links to more than 50 communities in seven African countries, to serve tens of thousands people. The team has also provided disaster response services in the Pacific and The Caribbean.
Taara continues to focus on reducing and simplifying its technology to bring the benefits of light-based communications to even more people. The team is interested in collaborating with academics, researchers and innovators to explore new applications for its chip technology.
