Fiber without digging. That’s the pitch from Taara, the Alphabet spinoff that graduated from Google’s X moonshot lab in March 2025 and just unveiled its most significant product yet. Taara Beam is a shoebox-sized, 8kg device that transmits 25Gbps of bidirectional internet across distances of up to 10km using invisible near-infrared light beams — no trenching, no spectrum licensing, no right-of-way permits. It debuted at MWC Barcelona 2026 on February 23, with early access now open.
Taara Beam: Full Specs and Context
Taara Beam is built on the Taara Photonics Platform — described as the world’s first wireless communication platform based on optical phased arrays, with over 1,000 miniature light emitters on a photonic module the size of a finger that steers beams electronically, with no moving parts.
| Spec | Taara Beam | Taara Lightbridge (Previous) |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Up to 25Gbps bidirectional | Up to 20Gbps |
| Range | 100m–10km | Up to 20km |
| Weight | 8kg | 13kg |
| Power Consumption | ~90W | Higher |
| Form Factor | Shoebox-sized — rooftop/pole mount | Traffic light-sized |
| Beam Technology | Optical phased array (solid-state, no moving parts) | Mechanical beam steering |
| Light Type | Class 1M eye-safe near-infrared (193 THz) | Infrared |
| Ports | 2× optical SFP+ (25/10/5/2.5/1GbE) + 2× 1G RJ-45 | Varies |
| Deployment Time | Hours — no trenching or spectrum licence needed | Hours |
| Target Markets | Urban backhaul, enterprise campuses, data centres, events | Rural and remote connectivity |
| Uptime Solution | Lightbridge Pro companion — 99.999% uptime for adverse weather | — |
| Operators Already Deployed | Airtel, Digicel, T-Mobile, SoftBank, Liquid (Lightbridge) | 20+ countries |
| Pricing | Not yet announced | — |
| Early Access | Open — taaraconnect.com | — |
What Makes Taara Beam Different From Previous Free-Space Optics
Traditional free-space optical systems — FSO has existed for decades — steer beams using mirrors, motors, and mechanical hardware. Mechanical systems work but have fundamental scaling limits: they’re bulky, prone to vibration drift, and expensive to maintain at density.
Taara’s silicon photonics platform changes the architecture entirely. The optical phased array integrates beam steering into a chip — the same way a phased array antenna steers radio waves electronically, but for light. This means Taara Beam can track moving targets, compensate for thermal expansion in mounting structures, and self-align in real time — all without motors. As an integrated circuit, it follows semiconductor economics: each generation gets cheaper and more capable, not more expensive as mechanical systems do at scale.
The weather problem — fog, heavy rain, and snow degrade optical links — remains real and is the honest challenge any FSO product faces. Taara’s mitigation is the companion Lightbridge Pro system, which delivers 99.999% uptime for carrier-grade requirements. The Beam product targets use cases where occasional degradation is acceptable: urban backhaul, enterprise campuses, data centre clusters, and event venues where alternative paths exist.
The India connection: Airtel is already a Taara Lightbridge operator — one of 20+ countries where Taara’s previous product is deployed. Taara Beam’s urban focus and the Airtel relationship make India a natural early market for city-scale deployments.
For early access and MWC briefings, visit Taara’s official website.
Check our Taara and next-generation connectivity news on TechnoSports and our India broadband infrastructure and 6G coverage 2026.
