Google launches the internet with 'laser' in Africa
Google, which gave up midway while promoting 'Project Loon', which aims to eliminate the world's Internet blind spots using stratospheric balloons flying at an altitude of 20 km, is starting to build an internet network using lasers as an alternative.
The plan is to provide Internet services with wireless lasers to areas where optical cable networks cannot be installed due to cost or geographic issues. The name Google gave to this plan is 'Project Taara'.
The laser internet originated from an idea originally devised by the 'Project Loon' development team for communication between stratospheric balloons that are more than 100 km away. It was 'Project Tara' that brought it to the ground and expanded it into a separate communication project. 'Project Rune' has disappeared, but one of its technologies has survived as 'Project Tara' and continues its legacy.
Google, which has been promoting the stratospheric balloon Internet since 2011, officially launched an Internet connection service in Kenya in the second half of last year. However, as it was judged not to be economical, it announced that it would close the business earlier this year, after only a few months.
Google announced that the 'Project Tara' team has recently succeeded in transmitting and receiving data using a laser between Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo) across the Congo River in Africa. The distance between the two cities is 4.8 km. The amount of data sent and received by laser beams across the river from high places was 700 terabytes in 20 days. Google explained, “This is the same amount of data as watching a World Cup soccer match 270,000 times in high-definition (HD) over 20 days.”
For smooth data transmission, there must be no obstacles between the two points.
The reason that Google is obsessively clinging to the expansion of its Internet service network by squeezing out various ideas is based on the judgment that it has great growth potential as about half of the world's population is still cut off from the Internet for geographical and economic reasons. Google expects global internet traffic to grow 24% annually.
The biggest advantage of this laser Internet, called WOC (wireless optical communications), is that it can transmit high-speed and high-capacity data similar to that of a cable, but does not require the installation of a wired cable. All you need to do is install the communication equipment high up on both sides of the area where data will be sent and received. According to Google, the data connection speed between two points on Razer Internet is over 20 Gbps.
However, the transmission quality is not 100% stable because the laser is greatly affected by weather conditions such as snow, fog, rain, and obstructions such as birds. However, Google emphasized that, through continuous technology development, in the case of Congo's pilot data transmission, it achieved 99.9% availability (the degree to which it is connected to the network) without the protection of optical cables.
Laser Internet started in 2017 with the installation of pilot base stations in Andhra Pradesh, India and Kenya, Africa.
"We don't expect perfect reliability in all weather and conditions, but we believe that Tara Internet will play a key role in providing lower-cost Internet with performance comparable to fiber optic cable,".
The distance between two points that can be connected via laser internet is up to 20 km. Therefore, rather than the main Internet network, it is expected to be useful as an auxiliary network that connects places where optical cable networks cannot reach.
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