Alphabet spin-out Taara boosted its profile in free-space optics-based collaborations with AT&T and Nokia's federal arm.

With AT&T, the firm provided ‘five nines’ connectivity for a game held at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The deployment combined Taara’s optical links with a millimeter-wave radio backup, delivering up to 20 Gb/s over the duration of the game. Underpinning it was a dual set of Taara Lightbridge links, the firm’s flagship beaming solution. Taara’s raison d'être since spinning out of Alphabet's Google Moonshot Factory centers around light-based optics which transmit through open air without need for physical networking infrastructure.

The firm is no stranger to the entertainment and broadcasting world, either, having previously provided networking for the Coachella music festival with T-Mobile US, as well as a recent iteration of the U.S. Open.

Taara's technology received further exposure in a demo held at Texas Tech University. Nokia Federal Solutions joined AT&T and Taara in the demonstration, which saw data carried across almost 8.7 miles (14 kilometers), connecting a university rooftop to a mobile cell site. With Nokia’s U.S.-based defense arm participating, the trial was pitched as proving the technology's viability to federal and state stakeholders.

In an announcement, Aldo Adriazola, senior principal member of AT&T’s technical staff, commented that free-space optics gave the operator “another way to deliver high-capacity connectivity where our customers need it, including locations with demanding deployment schedules.”

“Our special events team valued both the performance of the links at the tournament and the Taara team’s technical expertise and on-site support. This demonstration builds on that experience, showing how optical links can work alongside other technologies to meet a wider range of enterprise and federal networking needs,” Adriazola said.

“At the largest sporting event in the world, AT&T deployed our links in a matter of hours. Now, we’re continuing to demonstrate what that same flexibility can mean for businesses and governments. We believe the capacity to build, serve, and grow should reach far beyond the places where laying fiber is practical,” added Mahesh Krishnaswamy, founder and CEO of Taara.

According to Taara, AT&T’s Enterprise and Labs teams are currently evaluating Taara’s Lightbridge links for broader network use cases.