Taara, a graduate of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory, and a leader in high-speed, high-capacity wireless optical communications, announced the expansion of its commercial momentum for enterprise and federal customers in the U.S. Following a successful deployment with AT&T at the biggest soccer stage in the world, a live demonstration of Taara Lightbridge at Texas Tech University shows how narrow, invisible beams of light can deliver high-capacity connectivity where speed, security, and operational efficiency are mission-critical.

The demonstration, in collaboration with AT&T and Nokia Federal Solutions, carries data across 14 km, connecting a university rooftop to a mobile cell site, known as a “cell on wheels”, at the venue. Presented to enterprise, state and federal government stakeholders in Texas, it highlights how wireless optical communication can extend existing networks and provide an additional connection path without trenching or licensed spectrum.

From the World’s Largest Sporting Event to Critical Enterprise Infrastructure

With only a pair of Taara Lightbridge links, AT&T was able to swiftly connect more than 80,000 spectators at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Installed in a matter of hours, the links delivered up to 20 Gbps over the course of the game. The deployment combined Taara’s optical links with a millimeter-wave radio backup, demonstrating “five nines” availability (99.999%) across the hybrid connection.

When tens of thousands of people come together for a global event, the network has to be ready when they are. At the largest sporting event in the world, AT&T deployed our links in a matter of hours. Now, we’re continuing to demonstrate what that same flexibility can mean for businesses and governments. We believe the capacity to build, serve, and grow should reach far beyond the places where laying fiber is practical.
— Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and CEO, Taara

The installation showed how high-capacity connectivity could be brought online quickly to meet the concentrated demands of a major sporting event. Following the successful demonstration at the largest sporting event in the world, Taara's technology was used at Texas Tech University, as part of the university’s Critical Infrastructure Telecom Ecosystem Incubator.

Taara Lightbridge gives us another way to deliver high-capacity connectivity where our customers need it, including locations with demanding deployment schedules. Our special events team valued both the performance of the links at the tournament and the Taara team’s technical expertise and on-site support. This demonstration builds on that experience, showing how optical links can work alongside other technologies to meet a wider range of enterprise and federal networking needs.
— Aldo Adriazola, Senior Principal Member of Technical Staff at AT&T
Taara Lightbridge deployed on cell on wheels at the U.S. venue.

High capacity without the construction wait

Taara Lightbridge transmits and receives up to 20 Gbps of data over distances of up to 20 km between two terminals. Its lightweight terminals can be deployed and redeployed on rooftops or towers with a clear line of sight, using beams of light to carry data through the air.

Hundreds of Taara links across more than 20 countries already expand high-speed, low-latency connectivity to communities and businesses where fiber cannot readily reach or remain vulnerable. At the network level, wireless optical links can provide a physically diverse path alongside fiber and other high-capacity connections, helping reduce dependence on a single route.

New fiber deployments can involve lengthy rights-of-way negotiations, physical construction, and disruption along the cable route. Meanwhile, demand from artificial intelligence applications and other data-intensive services continues to increase the need for capacity. Wireless optical communication gives providers another way to extend their networks while addressing customers’ deployment timelines and resilience requirements.

The Texas Tech demonstration illustrates how different technologies can be combined to meet diverse networking needs. AT&T’s Enterprise and Labs teams are also evaluating Taara links for broader network use cases.

Installing Taara Lightbridge on the university rooftop.

Expanding connectivity at the speed of light

Beyond Lightbridge, Taara’s latest leap in photonics innovation integrates its core functionality into a small photonic module. This integrated photonics platform, Taara Photonics, uses an optical phased array to steer and track light, correcting for atmospheric effects with thousands of tiny, software-controlled light emitters.

Built on light and designed to scale, Taara is developing smaller, lighter, and more flexible ways to move high-speed data through space, bringing more capacity to the places where people, businesses, and essential services need it.

For more information about Taara, visit www.taaraconnect.com.