Taara, a US-based communications technology company, has introduced a new silicon-photonics platform designed to deliver “ultra-high-speed internet through the air optically,” as well as the first commercial product based on that platform. The company, which spun out of Alphabet’s X, known as the “Moonshot Factory,” says it aims to offer fiber-like connectivity without the cost, delays and physical disruption of traditional cable installation.

“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,” said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, founder and CEO of Taara. “With light transmitted through the air, those constraints begin to disappear.”

A solid-state shift in optical communications

The Taara Photonics Platform is a redesigned architecture that integrates optical transmission components onto a single silicon chip. Traditional free-space optical systems depend on moving mechanical parts like mirrors, sensors and mechanical hardware to aim light signals. Instead, Taara Photonics uses an optical phased array—a solid-state steering devices containing more than a thousand miniature light emitters—to electronically steer light with extreme precision.

This solid-state design significantly reduces size and complexity while improving reliability and responsiveness, according to the company. By eliminating mechanical tracking systems, Taara says it enables faster beam adjustment, lower latency, and a path toward scalable manufacturing. The approach positions optical wireless links to evolve more like computing hardware than traditional telecom infrastructure.

Devin Brinkley, SVP of Engineering at Taara, added, “Silicon photonics allows us to integrate the core functionalities of wireless optical communication into a single module. We have 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.”

Leveraging line-of-sight

Built on this new platform, Taara Beam is the company’s first commercial product. Roughly the size of a shoebox, the device transmits narrow, near-infrared light beams capable of delivering bidirectional data speeds of up to 25 Gbps across distances of approximately 10 kilometers.

Because the system operates through line-of-sight light transmission, the company says it can be mounted on rooftops, towers or poles and installed within hours. There is no need for trenching fiber cables or acquiring licensed radio spectrum, so Taara says that deployment is significantly faster and less disruptive than other methods.

The new platform builds on Taara’s earlier system, Taara Lightbridge, which has already been deployed in more than 20 countries to extend connectivity across rivers, mountainous terrain and other hard-to-reach areas. By miniaturizing the technology into a compact silicon-photonics module, Taara aims to increase network density and flexibility, and expand use cases across urban infrastructure, enterprise campuses and data center interconnects.

Taara plans to showcase its latest technology at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026, taking place from 2 to 5 March, where it will demonstrate the platform and engage with carriers and infrastructure partners interested in early access.