The global coronavirus pandemic has shown us how important fast, affordable, and reliable internet connectivity is important to our daily lives.
The outbreak of the virus created a drastic shift in how we work, share, connect, and stay in touch with other people.
As much as we agree that internet connection is important to our daily lives, about 4 billion people are still disconnected from the internet, according to a research.
There are several parts of the world where high-speed internet access is not yet common knowledge, especially, through the laying of fibre cables, and this has led to an innovation.
Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, took a shot at solving that problem with Project Taara. Project Taara is designed to replaces fiber cables with beams of light.
Project Taara, however, is not a new project, it was renamed from The FSOC project.
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This project is targeted at developing an entirely new way to provide affordable and fast internet connectivity to different parts of the world, where laying of Optic fibre Cable (OFC) is not practical, or economically feasible.
Project Taara works by using a narrow rays and invisible beam of light to transmit data – at high speeds. The beam transmitted by the gadget can travel as far as 20km between two terminals. It also has a bandwidth of 20Gbps or more.
Due to Project Taara’s use of light, instead of cables, its stations can be erected above ground, therefore, solving the problem that comes with digging trenches and laying underground cables.
Stationing Project Taara also solves the problem that comes with laying cables in riverine areas, as well as other areas with topographically problems that needs lots of money to solve.
Project Taara has already recorded success in India, making Sub-Saharan Africa the next region Alphabet Inc. is focusing for the project.
Alphabet is working with Econet and Liquid Telecom to offer high-speed internet access in Kenya first.
Once the project is successful deployed in the East African country, it is believed that the new connection will positively impact on the receiving communities, as well as how work and education is done remotely.