Today, as part of an announcement from The City of Rio de Janeiro and X, The Moonshot Factory, Taara announced a trailblazing new partnership to deploy the world’s first mesh network of high-speed wireless optical links to deliver fast, abundant and secure connectivity to schools, hospitals and city offices in Rio. Our goal is to bridge connectivity gaps across the city and provide fast, affordable connectivity to critical services like schools, hospitals, government centers, and in disaster response situations.
In the same way traditional fiber uses light to carry data through cables in the ground, Taara uses narrow, invisible beams of light to transmit information at speeds as high as 20 gigabits per second, up to distances of 20 kilometers per link. Taara connects into existing fiber networks and bridges the gap where fiber and other technologies can’t reach. Instead of waiting months or years to dig up the earth and lay new fiber cables, Taara’s links can be established within hours.
In Rio de Janeiro, Taara will install 20+ links to deliver service to communities where connectivity is spotty or unreliable. The links will create an invisible mesh network over parts of the city that will serve as a single responsive system - connecting community institutions like schools and hospitals and helping facilitate emergency response.
A New Approach for Urban Connectivity in Rio
Although Brazil ranks among the world’s five largest internet economies, connectivity still remains spotty - more than half of the population uses smartphones to get online, and existing cellular infrastructure varies by community.
In Rio, some of the most stubborn, hard-to-connect areas are also the city’s most populated. Built of brick, concrete, and steel rooftops through a labyrinthine tangle of narrow streets and uneven terrain, it’s nearly impossible to connect these communities via traditional broadband fiber. Taara’s links, which can be mounted flexibly on rooftops, towers, and poles, are well suited to these challenging terrains and combine the reliability and speed of fiber infrastructure with the flexibility of wireless technologies.
To date, Taara has successfully delivered reliable, abundant internet to people in more than 20 countries. This includes providing access in dense urban communities in India and Africa, delivering fast affordable connectivity to island nations in the Pacific and the Caribbean after natural disasters, and beaming connectivity over rivers, sea straits, and other places where laying fiber is too impractical or costly.
Taara is honored to be supporting Rio’s AI City vision and its mission to transform the region into a global innovation hub. We hope Taara’s first mesh network in Rio can serve as a blueprint for urban connectivity and inspire a more connected, intelligent, and inclusive world.
Connecting Rio with the world’s first wireless optical mesh network
Video Credit: Taara