Google sends 20Gbps internet through the air

Google’s parent company Alphabet is now testing internet speeds of 20Gbps by sending signals in pulses of light, rather than through fibre-optic cables.

Called Project Taara ( https://x.company/taara), the trial connects Brazzaville and Kinshasa in Africa across the Congo river. The cities, capitals of the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo respectively, are only 4.8 kilometres apart, yet connectivity is five times more expensive in Kinshasa because broadband cables have to travel over 400kms around the river.

Taara aims to solve this problem by sending lasers between two terminals that have a clear line of sight. Its engineers say the signals can be transmitted reliably over 20 kilometres, which is much further than has been possible before.

Typically, signals sent over this distance can be weakened by obstacles like birds, high winds or fog. But Taara’s terminals (pictured) overcome these hazards by searching for each other, then locking in each other’s beam of light to create a high- bandwidth connection.

This allows the beam to move without disrupting the connection, automatically adjusting to changes in the environment.

Taara’s team managed to transfer 700TB of data over 20 days with a reliability of 99.9 per cent. They say it could hit speeds of 100Gbps, though probably over shorter distances. The technology was developed from Google’s Project Loon, which ended earlier this year after spending 10 years testing how to deliver broadband from hot air balloons.