The encyclopedia · Software & IT · Technical decision · 2017–2025
X's Taara beamed 20 Gbps internet across rivers with lasers instead of fiber
Free-space optical links deliver fiber speeds without trenches—installed in hours, aligned by mirrors and software.
Project Taara (X, Alphabet)
the move
Project Taara, born inside X (Alphabet's moonshot lab) in 2017, delivers connectivity with beams of light: two small terminals lock narrow invisible beams to form a high-capacity link, inspired by the laser links Loon demonstrated between stratospheric balloons.
The Lightbridge transmits up to 20 Gbps over 20 km using mirrors, sensors and predictive algorithms that mechanically steer and hold the beam. Because there is no cable, there is no trenching or right-of-way paperwork—links install in hours and can be redeployed, which suits river crossings, dense cities, events and disaster response.
By 2025 the team had deployed hundreds of links in more than a dozen countries—with T-Mobile for event backhaul in the US, Airtel in India and Liquid Intelligent Technologies across seven African countries—and unveiled a silicon photonic chip that steers the beam with software instead of moving parts, transmitting 10 Gbps over 1 km outdoors in tests.
why it works
- Light carries data at fiber speeds without the cable
- Software-steered mirrors keep the beam locked on
- No right-of-way means hours, not months, to deploy
- Redeployable links work where fiber never pays
what transfers
Find the bottleneck's geometry, not just its cost: where digging is impossible, the same physics that carries light in fiber can carry it through air.
what came after
Taara continues to expand with telecom partners; its chip shrinks the terminal to fingernail size to cut cost, and Taara Share lets local ISPs resell bandwidth in pay-as-you-go slices, a model observed after customers began reselling Taara links in Kenya.
references
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