Google's parent company Alphabet's innovation
Team X is exploring a new approach to provide
internet connectivity in India.
It is planning to use FSOC Boxes. FSOC stands
for Free Space Optical Communications. Alphabet's
X team used this FSOC technology in its Project
Loon to send data reliably between balloons
flying on the stratospheric winds.
Now it is going to use the same technology,
but with Boxes instead of Balloons.
FSOC links use beams of light to deliver high-speed,
high-capacity connectivity over long distances — just
like fiber optic cable, but without the cable.
And because there’s no cable, this means
there’s none of the time, cost, and hassle
involved in digging trenches or stringing
cable along poles. FSOC boxes can simply be
placed kilometers apart on roofs or towers,
with the signal beamed directly between the
boxes to easily traverse common obstacles
like rivers, roads and railways.
Alphabet has been working with AP State FiberNet,
a telecom company in Andhra Pradesh, a state
in India which is home to more than 53 million
people. Less than 20% of residents currently
have access to broadband connectivity, so
the state government has committed to connecting
12 million households and thousands of government
organizations and businesses by 2019 — an
initiative called AP Fiber Grid.
AP State FiberNet has announced that they’ll
be rolling out two thousand FSOC links created
by the Alphabet's team at X. These FSOC links
will form part of the high-bandwidth backbone
of their network, giving them a cost effective
way to connect rural and remote areas across
the state. The links will plug critical gaps
to major access points, like cell-towers and
WiFi hotspots, that support thousands of people.
