Fiber-less optical telecom gathers momentum

17 Jun 2002

Just a month after Seattle-based start-up TeraBeam Networks announced successful trials of its fiber-less optical technology for local networks, the company has hooked up with telecom giant Lucent Technologies to develop and deploy systems based on this technology.

TeraBeam Networks is a local communications carrier covering large cities and plans to have its first fiber-less networks by the end of the year, with networks in a hundred major cities around the world within four years (See Free-space lasers offer a solution to bandwidth limit).

In the joint venture, known as TeraBeam Internet Systems, TeraBeam's point-to-multipoint Fiberless Optics technology will be combined with Lucent's point-to-point OpticAir technology to provide a system for TeraBeam's networks. Lucent will also be a preferred supplier, to TeraBeam, for other optical components. TeraBeam will own 70% of the joint venture company and Lucent will own 30%.

"We really think that this technology has the power to change the communications network globally," commented John Callahan of Lucent. According to Forrester Research, a US market research company, the market for US broadband Internet access will be USD 33 billion by 2003. Callahan says that most of this is addressable by this technology. "We have a sustainable first to market opportunity," he said.

TeraBeam Internet Systems will be based in Seattle. It has not been decided how many employees will be involved or whether some of Lucent's staff will move to Seattle but there will be a strong emphasis on speed of development.