Google’s broadband balloon laser comms tech floated out as independent company
- Reference: 1742274128
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/03/18/google_loon_balloon_spun_out/
- Source link:
The attempt to beam broadband from balloons was called “Loon” and started life in the group once known as “Google X”. After Alphabet became Google’s parent entity it kept the lab alive, renamed it “X” – no relation to Elon Musk’s ventures of the same name – and described it as a “Moonshot factory” that worked “to help solve some the world’s hardest problems.”
Loon tried to solve the problem of connecting remote parts of the world to the internet by flying enormous ballons that floated at 65,000 feet and carried LTE radios to provide data services on the ground. The balloons connected to each other with an optical network that used lasers to carry data through the air using spectrum that lies between infrared and visible light.
[1]
Alphabet [2]grounded Loon in 2021 after commercialization efforts sank.
[3]
[4]
The Moonshot factory, however, kept the laser tech alive and developed it into a product called “Taara Lightbridge” that could transmit data at speeds of up to 20 gigabits per second over distances of up to 20 kilometers. The product was pitched as an alternative to laying optic fiber in remote and rugged areas, or as a simpler and cheaper way to extend connectivity across water.
[5]Moonshot goes sideways as Intuitive Machines' second lunar lander seemingly falls over
[6]Google Glass DIED from TOO MUCH ATTENTION, Captain Moonshot admits
[7]Google yanks cash firehose from Lunar X Moonshot comp. The actual Moon shot one
[8]Reg man howls over HPE Moonshot IoT box
Telecommunications carriers liked the tech, which has been deployed by the likes of Airtel and Liberty Networks.
Taara also shrank the Lightbridge into a silicon photonic chip that creates the potential for future development of very small wireless optical networking devices. On Monday, X [9]announced Taara had “graduated” from the Moonshot factory to become an independent company, after winning funding from an outfit named [10]Series X Capital .
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A Taara Lightbridge terminal - Click to enlarge
The Moonshot Factory’s most visible graduate is self-driving taxi biz Waymo. Other [12]graduates – like the AIDA coding assistant - have been absorbed in to Google. Some are operating quietly without achieving enormous success or scale, such as the drone delivery operation Wing which hasn’t really taken off. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z9lSU8ygvuGLPPoY0qjToQAAAgM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/22/alphabet_deflates_its_loon_internet/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Z9lSU8ygvuGLPPoY0qjToQAAAgM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Z9lSU8ygvuGLPPoY0qjToQAAAgM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/07/intuitive_machines_landing/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2015/03/18/glasshole_daddy_admits_it_was_a_bad_idea/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/24/google_lunar_x_prize_withdrawn/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2017/01/10/moonshot_iot_box_comes_down_to_earth/
[9] https://x.company/blog/posts/taara-graduation/
[10] https://seriesx.capital/
[11] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/03/18/supplied_taara_lightbridge_terminal.jpg
[12] https://x.company/projects/#graduate
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Cool...
Shoots down lasers that are mounted to poles/buildings?
The balloon side of this is dead :(
Re: Cool...
I think it still remains a reasonable idea for temporary deployment in emergency areas, though this is probably not commercially attractive. For all the hype, satellite-based systems are significantly more expensive and, potentially, just as vulnerable to bad actors. It's just not presented as this as, in usual Silicon Valley chutzpah, every effort is spent on achieving a near-monopoly position.
"Graduated"
Presuming that isn't just a fluffier way of saying "we transferred as much of the parent company's debt into them as possible and then shoved them out the door so we could clean up our books some", which is usually what happens when a spin-off like this occurs.
But then again having a niche technology that caters to a specific set of customers with specific needs can work out in the long run, since there probably aren't that many competitors looking to fill that niche.
They seem to have removed the balloon element which leaves this as just another point to point wireless network option. They say light is better due to congestion but point to point radio isn’t congested at all as it’s directional. Nice that there’s another option but if a bird can block the laser I’m not sure it’s a step forward.
WISP services
One of my ISP connections here is a WISP service using point-to-point WiFi repeaters in a mesh over the fields. Works well enough, but at 20-30Mbps and with regular drop-outs, I'd be very happy to see them replaced with 20Gbps laser devices.
Don't know how well laser would cope with Welsh weather, though.
GJC
Re: WISP services
There is little that can cope with Welsh weather!
Birds block lasers, rain blocks microwaves. I think anything beamed through free air is going to have issues with signal blockage at some point*, but systems like this get used where a few dropouts is better than no network at all.
* Maybe a neutrino beam would make it through, but the receiver is a bit too big to mount on a pole.
Cool...
Until the USAF shoots them down.