Google Spins Out Aalyria To Make Lasers SpaceX Might Be Jealous Of

According to a Bloomberg report, Tightbeam is capable of beaming data at a speed of up to 1.6 terabits per second between two points that are hundreds of miles apart. “We can deliver 1 gigabit per second to every seat on a plane,” Aalyria CEO Chris Taylor was quoted as saying. In lab tests, the team was able to establish a network channel from its HQ and a mountaintop some 20 miles apart and between a ground-based projector to an antenna mounted on a plane flying roughly 110 miles away.

In comparison, Starlink’s widely covered satellite internet service sounds like a snail despite tall claims made by Elon Musk. In a recent FCC report that cited Ookla tests, Starlink’s internet service couldn’t even hold on to the baseline 20 Mbps uplink speed mark. Under optimal conditions, the service can currently muster a peak sustained downlink pace of around 150Mbps, according to Ookla.

Laser communication is also touted to be the future of space exploration, and even NASA is toying with in-house two-way communication systems like the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) and third-party proposals such as the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system. But Aalyria’s ambition goes further. The company also has a software product called Spacetime that can manage connectivity across any moving object, from satellites in deep and near space to boats and vehicles. The platform can make changes in real-time to account for disruptions across thousands of connection points across any altitude, frequency band, and wavelength.