About

Sending data through the air using light, rather than cables, comes with a unique set of challenges, the biggest of which is the weather. Through deployments in the real world, we learned that elements in the atmosphere, like fog, smog, dust, wind, heavy rain (or mischievous monkeys), can impact the strength and availability of light signals. Over the years, the Taara team has made technical innovations in our laser beams to improve pointing precision and signal processing to deliver a robust connectivity experience on the ground. Taara Lightbridge is designed to comfortably close a link when the visibility is greater than or equal to the link distance, i.e., if the remote terminal site is visible from the base end, the link will close, with some reserve margin. This reserve margin is used to close the link when visibility is shorter than the link distance, i.e., the remote terminal is not visible from the base end.

Taara's current generation wireless optical communication technology delivers high amounts of bandwidth to a single point at the edge of a community or in the city center. This bandwidth then gets distributed to individual homes and businesses by local internet service providers. On the other hand, satellite technology beams connectivity from space over a wide geographic area, sometimes directly to consumers. Satellite-based internet can rarely deliver enough capacity density to meet growing data demand in cities and emerging towns in places where Taara operates, which tends to be dense urban or periurban communities.

Loon was a former project at X to bring internet access to rural, remote, and underserved parts of the world using stratospheric balloons. To make Loon a reality, the team had to figure out how to send data reliably between balloons flying on the stratospheric winds. One solution, first proved out by sending data across more than 100 kilometers between balloons, was Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) technology. After seeing these results in the stratosphere we wondered if it would be possible to apply some of that science closer to earth to help us solve other connectivity challenges. In 2021, Loon's journey came to an end as the road to commercial viability proved much longer and riskier than hoped. But some of Loon’s technology, like the high-bandwidth optical communication links first used to beam a connection between balloons floating in the stratosphere, lives on in Taara. Learn more at x.company/loon.

Taara does not offer a direct to consumer product or service today. We partner closely with telcos, internet service providers, and other infrastructure providers to deliver affordable high-speed internet to more people, in dense metro areas, across rugged terrains, or over rivers.

Taara offers various pricing models. Our business team can help you choose the most economic option for your use case. Please reach out to sales@taaraconnect.com to schedule a consultation.

Like fiber, but without the cables, wireless optical communication (WOC) uses light propagating in free space to transmit information at super high speeds through the air. A single link of Taara’s current generation WOC technology can transmit 20 Gbps bidirectional throughput over distances up to 20 km between two points, and the effective range can be extended further when used as part of a relay system.

Links can be rapidly deployed and easily redeployed, all the while avoiding the costs associated with trenching to lay fiber or spectrum licenses to operate radio equipment. Taara operates at 193 THz in the optical spectrum, where there is orders of magnitude higher data capacity than in the radio spectrum. The beams are invisible, extremely narrow, and difficult to intercept or interfere with, adding security to data transmission. For a detailed look, download our datasheet.

We chose the name Taara as an homage to the project’s beginnings in India. The word Taara is derived from a Sanskrit meaning to cross. In many other contemporary Indian languages, the word tara also means star in reference to their motion in crossing the sky. It’s all about connecting communities to the internet and each other. Taara is doing exactly that.