Pictured: Taara beam, with mount: cost effective, quick to install and “shoe-box” size
- Silicon photonics-based approach to wireless communication
- Lightbridge Pro offers 20 Gbps wireless optical connectivity with 99.999% uptime
- Taara Photonics, the world’s first wireless communication platform based on optical phased arrays
- Taara Beam uses Taara Photonics
- Taara Partner Roundtable at MWC ’26, to schedule a meeting: [email protected]
About Taara
Taara, the laser-based internet project developed within Alphabet’s “moonshot” incubator X, became an independent company in March 2025. Project Taara was a Google X moonshot project that delivered high-speed, 20 Gbps+ internet connectivity by beaming data through the air using invisible light, acting as a “wireless fibre” alternative. It specialises in bridging the “middle mile” for underserved, rural, or difficult-to-reach areas up to 20 km away.
Taara Phototonics & Taara Beam
Taara has curated a breakthrough approach to commercial communications and connectivity infrastructure, unveiling Taara Photonics, the world’s first wireless communication platform based on optical phased arrays, along with Taara Beam, its first product based on this photonic core.
By moving the core functionality of high-speed wireless optical communication into an integrated circuit that controls light electronically, Taara now enables networks that can be deployed in hours, scaled more flexibly, and improved over time, without the constraints of trenching fibre or securing scarce spectrum.
Optical Phased Arrays
The proprietary optical phased arrays were developed at X and Taara labs over the past several years. Taara Beam is the first product built on this photonic platform, delivering up to 25 Gbps of high-speed, low latency connectivity over distances up to 10 kilometres in a compact, deployable form factor.
Designed for operators, enterprises, and next-generation data infrastructure, Taara Beam brings fibre-like speeds to environments where traditional infrastructure is too slow, costly, or impractical to build, marking a shift from fixed, physical networks to infrastructure that can evolve at the pace of demand.
Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and CEO of Taara, explains:
“Every generation of connectivity has been defined by a physical constraint—copper’s speed, fiber’s time to deploy, and the scarcity of radio spectrum. With light transmitted through the air, those constraints begin to disappear. Taara Beam is the first commercial product built on our photonics platform, and it’s just the beginning. We’re not just improving networks, we’re removing the limits that have defined them. We’re excited to showcase this breakthrough technology at MWC, building toward a future where connectivity feels less like infrastructure and more like the air we breathe – essential, abundant, and almost invisible to the people who rely on it.”
Solid-state control of light
Traditional free-space optical systems steer beams of light using mirrors, sensors, and mechanical hardware — an approach that works, but is physically constrained at scale. Taara Beam represents a new architecture, shifting from mechanical control to increasingly solid-state control of light.
At its core is an integrated photonic module containing over a thousand miniature light emitters arranged in an optical phased array, a solid-state steering device. This phased array allows Taara Beam to track, shape, and steer light with greater precision, improving reliability and latency while significantly reducing size and mechanical complexity.
Devin Brinkley, SVP of Engineering at Taara, comments:
“Silicon photonics allows us to integrate the core functionalities of wireless optical communication into a single module. We’ve compressed most of the functionality of our previous systems into a photonic module the size of a finger. As the technology matures, it can scale across performance, cost, and size — similar to the exponential pace at which semiconductor platforms evolve.”
Built for Next Gen
Taara’s first system, Taara Lightbridge, is now deployed in over 20 countries with operators including Airtel, Digicel, T-Mobile, SoftBank, and Liquid.
Taara Beam is designed for the next phase: shrinking Taara’s wireless optics technology into a shoe-box sized form factor, Beam radically increases network density and flexibility. It enables high-throughput, low-latency connectivity across urban environments, enterprise campuses, data centre clusters, and event venues, all without the delays and costs associated with building physical infrastructure.
Beam can be deployed on rooftops, poles, or existing structures in hours, forming high-bandwidth mesh networks that support applications ranging from small-cell backhaul mounted on street furniture to fronthaul networks and AI-driven, real-time systems. By operating in the unlicensed optical spectrum, it avoids congestion and recurring spectrum costs while delivering performance at the speed modern networks require.
Taara Lightbridge Pro
Lightbridge Pro offers 20 Gbps wireless optical connectivity with 99.999% uptime, giving operators a carrier-grade “five nines” backhaul solution that performs through adverse weather at a lower total cost of ownership.
Lightbridge Pro builds on Taara Lightbridge, a proven wireless optical communication technology, to deliver the speed and flexibility of light with carrier-grade availability. The solution pairs Taara’s 20 Gbps full-duplex connection with intelligent, built-in switching to fibre or a radio frequency (RF) backup.
Hitless switchover for adverse weather
When adverse atmospheric conditions such as fog or heavy rain impact optical performance, Lightbridge Pro enables automatic, hitless switchover to fibre or RF. In traditional architectures that rely on external switches, this transition can take several seconds per switchover. By integrating the switch directly into the system, Lightbridge Pro eliminates that delay, maintaining carrier-grade continuity at all times.
“Lightbridge Pro proves that we can deploy fiber-grade capacity over the air with no digging, no delays—upgrading operators’ existing infrastructure in a matter of hours.” continues Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and CEO of Taara.
20+ Countries
Taara Lightbridge is already deployed in more than 20 countries, spanning dense urban environments, remote terrain, and disaster recovery scenarios. Operators including T-Mobile, Airtel, Digicel, Liquid Intelligent Technologies, and SoftBank are using Lightbridge to extend and reinforce network capacity without the delays, cost, or regulatory hurdles associated with fibre builds.
Lightbridge Pro is purpose-built for seamless integration into carrier-grade networks, including mobile backhaul, urban densification, enterprise applications, data centres, and public-sector infrastructure like city-wide networks. Key features include inband management and combined monitoring of the multiband solution via an integrated switch.
Lightbridge Pro also delivers comprehensive Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security (FCAPS) network management on-premise or on Cloud, and integration with carrier Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS).
MWC Barcelona 2026
Taara will showcase its expanding portfolio of light-based connectivity solutions at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2026. Founder and CEO Mahesh Krishnaswamy will present a live demonstration of the photonic core on the “Game Changers” stage.
