INDUSTRY NEWS
Enabling next-generation free- space optical communications
Taara, a graduate of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory, and a leader in high-speed, high- capacity wireless optical communications, has launched the industry’s first link planning product developed specifically for next-generation free-space optical communications. Taara Link Planner brings nearly a decade of research and development originating at X into a publicly accessible platform for network operators, infrastructure teams, and network planners. Its models have been validated against one of the largest real-world datasets on free-space optical links ever assembled, drawing on deployments and atmospheric observations spanning diverse
geographies, climates, and operating conditions around the world. The platform allows users to plan deployments of Taara Lightbridge, the company’s wireless optical communications technology, which uses narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver high-capacity connectivity through the air between two fixed and easily deployable terminals. By entering an address or coordinates, or by placing link endpoints manually on a map, users can assess link distance, identify potential line-of-sight obstructions, adjust mounting heights and estimate expected availability based on local atmospheric conditions. Taara’s internal modelling currently shows availability with about 1% accuracy of
the predictions, on average, when local weather data is available and terminals are installed to specification. “Over the last decade, our deployments from dense cities and remote communities to some of the world’s most demanding atmospheric conditions have taught us how light behaves in the real world. Taara Link Planner brings that body of research together in a product that operators everywhere can use. It gives free-space optical communications the kind of dedicated planning capability that established network technologies have relied on for years, and represents an important step towards making light a mainstream part of global connectivity,” said Mahesh Krishnaswamy, Founder and
CEO of Taara.
Wireless optical communication uses
narrow, invisible beams of light to deliver high-capacity connectivity through the air. Unlike radiofrequency (RF) systems, it operates in unlicensed optical spectrum and avoids many of the congestion, licensing, disruption, and costs associated with traditional wireless infrastructure and fibre deployments. Because wireless optical communications transmit data using highly focused beams of light, network planning involves different environmental and atmospheric considerations than traditional RF systems. Taara Link Planner has been designed specifically with those optical characteristics in mind.
‘First-ever’ automated error detection for network records launched
euNetworks deploys 1000km fibre route between Paris and Milan
AI software developer IQGeo has announced an “industry-first” capability that automatically detects errors in telecom network records during field operations. The new capability marks a foundational step toward the accurate, continuously updated network data that autonomous network operations require, says the company. When engineers build or repair network infrastructure, the physical work rarely matches the original design exactly. Engineers may need to make slight variations, like changing routes, substituting equipment or changing connections.
Network operator euNetworks has announced the deployment of a new
network records to gradually drift out of sync with reality. Most operators currently reconcile these differences manually, a slow and error-prone process that leaves operational decisions, from planning future investment to diagnosing faults, increasingly dependent on data that no longer reflects the network as it exists in the real world. IQGeo’s visual AI application captures the results of a network build or repair and compares it against the original design. Any differences are immediately flagged, classified and routed to back-office teams for review, with follow-up work orders created where corrective action is needed.
within euNetworks’ existing network. The development follows the delivery of the company’s short, direct route connecting Frankfurt to Milan via Zurich in October 2025. The two developments combined provide the shortest cumulative routes between
1057km long-haul fibre route through The Alps between Paris and Milan. The new route offers the most direct path between the two regions, offering a shorter alternative to the more common routes running along the coast via Lyon and Marseille, according to the company. The route has been developed to provide customers with the most direct, diverse path between the key connectivity hubs of Paris and Milan, as well as creating opportunities for the further shortening and diversifying of interconnecting routes
Frankfurt and Milan, at 771km and 1,000km.
Customers utilising the route will have the ability to connect seamlessly into euNetworks’ owned and operated metro networks in Paris, which includes 38 on-net data centres, and Milan, which includes 18 on-net data centres, as well as benefitting from onward connectivity to the company’s 600+ connected data centres across Europe.
These variations are normal, but they lead
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| ISSUE 44 | Q3 2026
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