Taara's Light-Based 'Beam' Aims to Wire Cities at Fiber Speeds, Without the Cables

A shoebox-sized device, mounted on a lamppost, is now delivering internet at a blistering 25 gigabits per second. That’s the promise of Taara Beam, a new light-based system unveiled by the Alphabet spin-out Taara. The technology uses invisible beams of light to create high-speed links across cities, offering a potential end-run around the slow, costly process of burying fiber-optic cable.

Unlike Taara’s earlier long-range bridges, the 20-pound Beam is built for urban grids, with a range up to 10 kilometers. It consumes about as much power as a standard light bulb. The key selling point is speed—not just of data, but of deployment. A link can be set up in hours, a fraction of the time needed for trenching or securing wireless spectrum.

While it enters a market contested by satellite providers, Taara stakes its claim on ultra-low latency—under 100 microseconds—which it says is untouchable by any space-based network. The product isn’t meant for home users. Instead, it’s targeting telecom companies and enterprises needing ‘middle-mile’ infrastructure.

Early interest, according to Taara, focuses on two areas: wirelessly dumping massive loads of sensor data from parked electric delivery vans and robotaxis, and forming high-speed mesh networks between city intersections to enable instant vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication.

The Beam will make its formal debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, as the company looks to turn its light-speed vision into urban reality.