Speaker 0:  we've been told for decades that the only way to get gigabit internet is to dig up our streets, but a stealthy alphabet spin out just changed the math entirely. if you think fiber optic cables are the final frontier bandwidth, wait until you see what happens when they untethered them and shoot 25 gigabits straight through thin air. so invisible light replaces digging fiber. so alphabet's x spin out, terra, has launched a terrabeam, a shoebox sized device that uses near infrared light to blast 25 gigabit bidirectional internet up to 10 kilometers. it completely bypasses the need for underground trenching or expensive wireless spectrum licensing. this effectively democratized internet backhaul, turning any rooftop or cell tower into a high capacity data hub in hours instead of months. what do you think about this, john?

Speaker 1:  i think this is awesome. and i know it's it's often compared to sterling, but the two technologies, they solve different networking problems. and they actually may complement each other rather than directly compete. so at its core, tara uses technology known as fso or free space optical communication. so in traditional fiber networks, data travels through glass fibers as pulses of light. tara removes the fiber and transmits those same optical signals directly through the atmosphere. and so the breakthrough actually comes from tara's new silicon photonic platform. so earlier versions of the technology such as the light bridge system relied on mirrors, sensors, and mechanical systems to physically aim laser beams, freaking laser beams, at receiving stations. the new tara beam replaces much of that mechanical complexity with a photonic chip that electronically steers the beam using software. so this transition from mechanically rotating radar dishes to phased array radar systems is the game changer here. so the photonic chip contains more than a thousand miniature optical emitters that can dynamically shape and direct the beam without moving parts. and so this reduces maintenance requirements and improves reliability and dramatically shrinks the size of the device. so the original lightbridge i don't know if you have a picture of it, but it was roughly the size of a traffic signal. those are huge. and so this new system, it's been miniaturized as something closer to a fingernail sized chip. so why 2.5 gigahertz or gigabits per second? so typical home broadband is between a 100 megabits to one gigabit, sometimes faster. starlink, between 50 to 300 megabits. enterprise fiber, one to 10 gigabits. and so tarabeam's has tarabeam has a 25 gigabit bidirectional throughput. and it also boasts latency measured around a hundred microseconds, which is orders of magnitude lower than satellite internet. so it's not a starlink killer. it's more of a, it's more of a last, it's more of like a last mile connectivity kind of thing, if that makes sense.

Speaker 0:  or even more. yeah. like, i work for some big corporations, and we had to lay dark fiber between buildings downtown. and dark fiber is fiber you own, and no one else taps into it. it's not shared internet or whatever. we connected to buildings in the downtown core, and using something like this would be so much easier. so think of this update like trading in your city's underground plumbing system for a high powered water cannon on the rooftops. instead of spending millions of dollars in six months tearing up pavement, just lay a single pipe from point a to point b and just place a digital water cannon on one roof, point it direct, perfect. we add a funnel on the other roof miles away and it blast data through the air instantly. so this is available now and, being able to do what i call, like, city wide networks kind of thing where you can start connecting and what they're doing is last back hauling and whatnot. so

Speaker 1:  yeah.

Speaker 0:  this could be used by enterprises, by businesses, and any sort of internet providers trying to do back calling. this speed is great, and we're still limited by, sight. so, like, i don't think it's can be obstructed, with these point to point connections. so, in order to get this kind of speed and whatnot, the near infrared light frequency used here is entirely visible to the human eye, meaning these device are quietly blanketing urban skies with massive data pipelines without contributing to visual or electromagnetic pollution. you'll start to see these smaller boxes appearing on those towers you see on top of, high rises and whatnot, and think about a cable comp

Speaker 1:  my question is how secure is this?

Speaker 0:  well, it's point to point. so when you say how secure it is, something's gonna have to get right in the middle to capture the beam. and, usually, if it's capturing the beam, the beam will be disrupted at the other end. so i but think about this? instead of a cable company when a new building is formed or they switch contractors to supply cable to, a building, internet, whatnot, they're usually one contractor. they just have to put something on the roof now and beam it to it instead of digging up all this stuff and fiber that and then, you know, down. it becomes much easier to deploy these kinds of things. so you'll probably get better competition in these towers and whatnot now since it's easier to deploy and people don't have to have exclusive contracts to, build all the hardware in order to get the return on investment. yeah. tara didn't just spawn out of nowhere. it's a, graduate of alphabet x, formerly known as google x, the exact same moonshot factory that incubated waymo self driving cars and verily life sciences. despite being cutting edge, its massive global rollout includes major deployments by telecoms like airtel, digicel across developing regions like africa, south asia, and remote pacific islands, proving the moonshot tech is scaling faster, in emerging markets than in some western capital. so, you know, we'll have to see. the tara beam is proof that the future of infrastructure isn't buried in the dirt. it's flying right over our heads. chat, if your neighborhood isp could instantly 10 x your speed, but the connection dipped for five minutes a year during heavy fog, would you take that deal or stick to your steady copper? drop your thoughts in the chat below and let us know.