Goodbye cables, hello lasers: Alphabet’s plan to outshine Starlink

The internet’s future could be floating through the air – Alphabet’s Taara is betting on laser beams replacing traditional cables, and being a major competitor to Elon Musk’s Starlink.

Global internet infrastructure is set for a disruption as Google’s parent company Alphabet revealed that another company it owns, Taara, will be established as an independent venture, aimed at becoming a major player in the market.

Its flagship product, Taara Lightbridge, is a wireless communications system that transmits data using invisible laser beams.

Unlike traditional fibers, which take years and require high investment to install, Taara transmits data using invisible laser beams and can be set up in just a few hours.

This could be particularly advantageous in remote rural areas where fibreoptic cables are often impractical. It will also make installation cheaper.

With the demand for 5G internet ever increasing, fiber struggles to meet this growing appetite for better bandwidth.

A Taara laser beam is able to travel up to 12 miles, hopping from node to node and bypassing traditional support systems.

Taara could in effect be a maestro of innovation, potentially bridging the digital divide between urban and rural areas, where outreach had previously been bothersome.

These laser-based networks could be commercially available as soon as 2026, which is dependent on an optical phased array chip, which will feature thousands instead of hundreds of miniature light emitters, representing a weighty upgrade.

From balloons to beams

Notably, Taara’s laser tech evolved from Project Loon, Alphabet’s own initiative that used balloons floating at the edge of space.

Loon was shut down in 2021 due to the complexity of maintaining the floating balloons and its negative environmental impact – defunct balloons would end up in rural regions, on the ground like trash.

Nevertheless, the core technology of Loon remains the same, using lasers and this time without the hindrance of shifting weather patterns affecting the balloon's trajectory.

Taara represents a shift away from an experimental project into a commercially viable option, should the market demand it in the coming months and years.

Lasers vs fiber

Concerning urban environments, the speed of 20Gbps rivals and sometimes exceeds fiber-based cables.

The rapid deployment at which these lasers could be utilized in urban areas could be a pivotal moment, especially where scalability is concerned.

Urban growth adjusts at different quotients, and the internet framework can be adapted accordingly.

Smart cities – like Singapore or Helsinki – that leverage technology to improve the quality of life for its residents could use this flexible technology also, and a bonus could be its malleability, especially in cities prone to natural disasters.

The connectivity race

However, Taara doesn’t come without its drawbacks. Rain, fog, and dust are known to weaken and block laser beams, so big cities will also have maintenance issues compared to fiber, which is unaffected by these conditions.

High-rise buildings, particularly skyscrapers, may also pose challenges for the deployment of such infrastructure.

The likely future will be that these laser networks will be a complementary solution to fibreoptics, as opposed to fully replacing them.

And of course, there’ll be other competitors in this space. Elon Musk's Starlink is currently the market leader in using low-orbit satellite constellations. Starlink can reach the remotest areas but the service can be expensive.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper is also expected to launch 3,200 satellites to underserved communities, with at least half of these expected to be operational by summer 2026.

The global digital divide is a trillion-dollar challenge, meaning more companies will enter the race to provide affordable, high-speed internet worldwide.