Google Spins Out Secret Hi-Speed Telecom Project Called Aalyria

Inside Google, a team of techies has been working behind the scenes on software for high-speed communications networks that extend from land to space. Codenamed "Minkowski" within Google, the secret project is being unveiled to the public on Monday as a new spinout called Aalyria. CNBC reports: While Google declined to offer details about Aalyria, such as how long it's been working on the technology and how many employees are joining the startup, Aalyria said in a news release that its mission is to manage "hyper fast, ultra-secure, and highly complex communications networks that span land, sea, air, near space, and deep space." The company says it has a laser communications technology "on an exponentially greater scale and speed than anything that exists today." Aalyria's software platform has been used in multiple aerospace networking projects for Google.

Aalyria (pronounced ah-Leer-eeh-ah) said it has an $8.7 million commercial contract with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit. The company will be led by CEO Chris Taylor, a national security expert who has led other companies that have worked with the government. Taylor's LinkedIn profile says he's the CEO of a company in stealth mode that he founded in November. Aalyria's board of advisors includes several previous Google employees and executives as well as Vint Cerf, Google's chief internet evangelist who's known as one of the fathers of the web. Google will retain a minority stake in Aalyria but declined to say how much it owns and how much outside funding the company has raised. Google said that earlier this year it transferred nearly a decade's worth of intellectual property, patents and physical assets, including office space, to Aalyria. Aalyria's light laser technology, which it calls "Tightbeam," claims to keep data "intact through the atmosphere and weather and offers connectivity where no supporting infrastructure exists."

"Tightbeam radically improves satellite communications, Wi-Fi on planes and ships, and cellular connectivity everywhere," the company said.

Google is so Google

[snikulin]

... to be discontinued two years from now.

The Google Graveyard is patiently waiting

[thesjaakspoiler]

for this project to arrive.

Re:

[Quantum_Mechanic_196]

With a name no one knows how to pronounce, it's bound for the dustbin. Does it rhyme with Malaria? Nigeria? Backwards it's Airylaa, which might be what it's full of.

Tightbeam

[JThundley]

Is the term "tightbeam" copied from The Expanse or was it a real term that the story picked? Either way, pretty cool beltalowda!

Re:

[Zak3056]

I can't give you the origin, but the first Expanse novel is from 2012, and "tight beam" is far older than that. It was used in the Star Trek animated series in the early 1970s, and that's probably not where it was coined.

Light Laser

[nospam007]

"improves Wi-Fi on planes and ships"

With the light laser, will the WIFI be hindered by those pesky things called 'walls'?

6 months later..

[Osgeld]

Google Shitcan's Secret Hi-Speed Telecom Project Aalyria

Exponentially faster

[ceoyoyo]

"on an exponentially greater scale and speed than anything that exists today."

1^0 probably.

Re:Exponentially faster

[NalosLayor]

Come on now, it's at least 10^0.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

At least. It is the military after all.

So I invested all my time to learn about Airylaria

[poptopdrop]

AAAAAND it's gone.

So a free-space optics link?

[chas.williams]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]