The Airtel-Google saga on Taara explained – ETTelecom

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel plans to use Google parent Alphabet’s latest light beam internet technology, Taara, to bolster its 4G and 5G operations in India’s hard-to-reach places. Both companies have been running pilots since 2019 to assess if Taara can be deployed as a low-cost wireless backhaul technology in India’s remote and mountainous locations where it is expensive to dig trenches and lay optical fiber. Airtel, though, feels Alphabet’s laser tech needs more rigorous testing to assess its effectiveness in bad weather. But what exactly is Alphabet’s fast internet technology and how does it work? What is its potential role in ensuring uninterrupted mobile broadband connectivity in India’s inhospitable locations? Here’s an ET explainer.What is Taara, Alphabet’s internet via light beams technology?

It’s a laser technology developed at Google parent Alphabet’s California research lab, ‘X’. It uses light beams to transmit data at 20 Gbps speeds.

The Taara technology was born around 2016 after Alphabet’s earlier attempt — Project Loon — to use high-altitude helium balloons in the stratosphere to deliver fast wireless internet in rural and remote locations failed.

What exactly is ‘X’?

`X’ comprises a diverse group of inventors and entrepreneurs at Alphabet who build and launch futuristic technologies with the aim to improve people’s lives worldwide.

How does Taara technology work?

Light is used for fast data transmissions over air in the form of narrow, invisible beams. A machine akin to a traffic light on a pole beams lasers carrying the data at fast speeds in remote locations. The beams travel between Taara terminals to create links, resulting in high-bandwidth connections. Mirrors are used to connect and align the light beams.

Why do telcos like Bharti Airtel want Taara technology?

Telcos can use Taara’s light beam internet technology to quickly meet their wireless backhaul needs in remote places where digging and laying fibre is both costly and time-consuming. The likes of Airtel need wireless backhaul to connect their mobile towers with their core networks in challenging locations where fibre resources and towers are anyways limited. With a cost-effective wireless backhaul solution like Taara, Airtel will be able to offer uninterrupted 4G and 5G coverage to mobile users living in India’s hard-to-reach places and grow market share.

What are the technology concerns around Taara?

Ongoing field trials by Airtel-Alphabet have indicated that Taara’s light beam internet technology is not entirely weather-proof, and more testing is required in foggy conditions to assess its technical and commercial viability.

What is the status of Taara’s deployment globally?

Alphabet is commercially deploying Taara technology with telcos/ISPs in 13 countries.