Google X will deploy light beam tech to connect rural India to the internet

X, the research arm of Google's parent company, Alphabet is working with Indian internet service provider AP State FiberNet to deliver internet service to millions of customers in the state of Andhra Pradesh, without cable.

Instead X is using Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) links to deploy internet services, a solution that was used in Project Loon. For the unaware, X's Project Loon used hot air balloons to deliver internet access to remote areas in developing countries.

According to X, FSOC is just like "fiber optic cable, but without the cable" and uses light beams to deliver high speed, high capacity connectivity over long distance.  And because there’s no cable, this will save time, cost, and hassle involved in digging trenches or stringing cable along poles. The FSOC boxes can simply be placed on roofs or towers, and beam signal between the boxes across rivers, roads and railways. 

The FSOC links are said to provide connections of up to 20Gbps over long distances, which is enough bandwidth to connect major access points, like cell-towers and WiFi hotspots, that support thousands of people in rural and remote areas across the state, without spending much.

X says AP State Fibernet will roll out two thousand FSOC links to connect 12 million households and thousands of government organizations and businesses in Andhra Pradesh by 2019. 

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