India rolls out ‘moonshot’ plan to expand internet access using lasers: ‘this is really disruptive’

Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel and Google parent Alphabet are deploying the new ‘Taara’ laser technology to beam internet access to remote places

The Taara project is also helping link up internet services in 12 other countries, including Australia and Pacific island nations such as Fiji

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A Taara project terminal device to deliver the internet using mirrors and lasers, created by a project in Alphabet’s “moonshot factory” X. Photo: Reuters

Published: 1:05pm, 27 Jun 2023Updated: 3:36pm, 27 Jun 2023

Google parent Alphabet has already tried and failed to bring internet access to rural and remote areas by using high-altitude balloons in the stratosphere.

But now, the company is delivering internet service to remote areas by using beams of light.

The project known as Taara is part of Alphabet’s innovation lab called X, also nicknamed the “Moonshot Factory”. It was initiated in 2016 after attempts at using stratospheric balloons to deliver internet ran into problems due to high costs, company executives said.

This time around, things are progressing better, said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, who leads Taara.

Visitors stand next to a high-altitude balloon, part of an earlier Google project to deliver internet to remote places, on display in 2013. Photo: AFP

Taara executives and Bharti Airtel, one of India’s largest telecommunications and internet providers, said they are now moving toward larger-scale deployment of the new laser internet technology in the South Asian nation. Financial details were not disclosed.

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