Alphabet's Moonshot Factory's New Venture 'Taara' Delivers Light-Beamed Internet to Remote Regions

Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google delivers internet service to remote areas using beams of light.

The project, Taara, is part of Alphabet's innovation lab called X, also nicknamed the "Moonshot Factory," Reuters reports

Google previously failed to bring internet access to rural and remote areas using high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere.

It initiated the Moonshot Factory in 2016 after trying to employ stratospheric balloons to deliver internet, but high costs restricted its prospects.

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Taara executives and Bharti Airtel, one of India's largest telecom and internet providers, are migrating toward a larger-scale deployment of India's new laser internet technology.

Taara is helping to link up internet services in 13 countries so far, said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, who helms Taara, adding that it has struck deals with Econet Group and its subsidiary Liquid Telecom in Africa, internet provider Bluetown in India and Digicel in the Pacific Islands.

Krishnaswamy voiced Taara's aspirations to be the cheapest and the most affordable place to get a dollar per gigabyte to the end consumers.

Taara's machine is the size of traffic lights that beam the laser carrying the data - essentially fiber-optic internet without the cables. Partners like Airtel use the machines to build communications infrastructure in inaccessible places.

Bharti Airtel's chief technology officer, Randeep Sekhon, said Taara would also help deliver faster internet service in urban areas in developed countries, calling it less expensive to beam data between buildings than to bury fiber-optic cables.

Krishnaswamy was recently in Osur, an Indian village, for the installation of Taara equipment.

Google, in July 2020, committed $10 billion to digitize India.

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