covering the week's top tech stores
with a slight linux bias an alphabet
backed wireless network in kenya plans
to use light beams to provide internet
service up to 20 kilometers away
the technology will deliver wireless
internet over light beams that can cover
distances
of up to 20 kilometers alphabet's
project
taro which was unveiled in 2017
under the name the fsoc project
conducted a series of pilots in kenya
last year and is now partnering with a
telecom company
to deliver internet access in remote
parts of africa
kenya will get the technology first with
other countries in sub-saharan africa to
follow
similar to fiber optic cables tara's
technology uses light to transmit data
but without the cables the technology
requires line-of-sight connections so
alphabet deploys the terminals high up
on towers
poles or rooftops tara uses light to
transmit information at speeds as high
as 20 gigabits per second
as a very narrow invisible beam the
concept grew out of project loon which
had developed a balloon-based network to
cover remote areas
alphabet explains the loon team needed
to figure out a way to create a data
link between balloons and were
and were flying over 100 kilometers of
sorry that were flying
over 100 kilometers apart and thus
investigated the use of free space
optical communications technology to
establish high throughput links
between balloons after using those links
to send data between balloons in the
stratosphere
loon engineers wondered if they could
apply some of that science to solve
connectivity problems down a little
closer to earth and project tara was
born
tara's links will begin rolling out
across liquid telecoms networks in kenya
first
and will provide help provide high-speed
connectivity in places where it's
challenging to lay fiber cables
or where deploying fiber might be too
costly or dangerous
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from the category 5 dot tv newsroom i'm
becca ferguson
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