With satellite internet facing new competition, Taara’s laser-based technology offers a different path to global connectivity.

Light-based internet project Taara is exiting Alphabet’s “moonshot” incubator X, spinning off into an independent company. Taara’s tech uses lasers to transmit data, and is envisaged as a rival to Elon Musk’s Starlink when it comes to connecting rural areas to the internet.

Rather than use orbiting satellites, Taara plans to deliver fiber-like internet through the air using ground-based equipment that beams light.