Light-based internet provider Taara, which spun out of Alphabet’s “moonshot” incubator last year, just launched Taara Beam to deliver 25Gbps connectivity within cities using invisible beams of light — line of sight permitting.
Unlike the previous Taara Lightbridge, which connects communities separated by water and mountains over distances up to 20km (over 12 miles), the shoebox-sized Beam can be attached to street poles and rooftops for city-wide coverage at up to 10km. The 8kg (less than 20 pounds) device typically uses about 90W.
Taara’s main advantage is speed, rivaling fiber in throughput and deployable in hours—faster than securing radio spectrum or trenching cables. It competes with services like Starlink, but Taara’s ultra-low latency (less than 100μs) outperforms space-based solutions. Taara Beam, however, targets enterprises and telcos needing “middle-mile” infrastructure.
Lightbridge is already employed by companies like T-Mobile and Airtel in over 20 countries, and Taara reports “significant interest” in Taara Beam’s applications. One use is offloading terabytes of LiDAR and sensor data from electric vehicles like delivery vans and robotaxis when parked for charging. Another is creating high-speed mesh networks connecting city intersections for low-latency V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) communications.
Taara Beam will debut at Mobile World Congress (MWC) next week in Barcelona, with The Verge covering the event highlights.