Terabeam Still Beaming Broadband Light
from the still-moving-forward dept
More than two years ago we first mentioned Terabeam as the company that was trying to beam bandwidth using lasers. Every once in a while I check to see how they're doing, and they keep saying things are coming along, but you don't hear much about them. Now they're branching out from their Seattle test bed and trying to beam bandwidth around LA. The article has some more details about how it all works (and the fact that anything that cuts in front of the beam (if it blocks it almost entirely) can stop the bandwidth from flowing (damn line of sight issues). The article also talks about their troubleshooting method, which involves putting cameras inside each laser unit, so that when there's a problem, the techs can turn on the camera and see what the problem is (they give an example where someone hung a jacket over the laser - oops). As it did two years ago, it still sounds cool - however, the line of sight issues seems like a really tough one to overcome.
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