According to the report, Google has a technical team dedicated to developing software for high-speed communication networks from the ground to space. The team’s internal codename is Minkowski. Google officially unveiled the secretive project on Monday and spun it off into a company called Aalyria.
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Google declined to provide details about Aalyria, such as how long it has been working on the technology and how many employees will join the startup. Aalyria said in a press release that its mission is to manage “an ultra-fast, ultra-secure, ultra-complex communications network spanning land, sea, sky, near-Earth space and outer space .”
Aalyria says it has laser communication technology “far beyond the scale and speed of existing technologies. ” Aalyria’s software platform is used in several of Google’s space network projects.
The split comes as Google parent Alphabet grapples with slowing growth in ad spending and is considering moving forward or dropping some of its experimental projects. To a certain extent, this means seeking external financial support for some projects that have been incubated for many years.
Alphabet’s life sciences company Verily and self-driving car maker Waymo have both raised funding from outside investors, while Alphabet has also shuttered power-generating kite maker Makani and balloon-connected company Loon.
Security expert Chris Taylor will serve as Aalyria’s CEO. Taylor’s LinkedIn profile shows that he is currently the CEO of a company he secretly founded last November. Alphabet itself has been pursuing more contracts with the government, and they also created a “Google Public Sector” earlier this year. The new subsidiary works primarily with the U.S. government through Google Cloud.
Aalyria’s advisory board includes several former Google employees and executives, such as Google’s chief Internet evangelist and “father of the Internet” Vint Cerf.
Google will still hold a minority stake in Aalyria, but they declined to disclose the exact percentage or the amount of outside financing. Google said earlier this year that it had turned over nearly 10 years of intellectual property, patents, and physical assets, including offices, to Aalyria.
Aalyria’s light laser technology, dubbed “Tightbeam,” claims to be able to adapt to all kinds of weather as it travels through the atmosphere, maintain data integrity, and provide internet access without the supporting infrastructure. “Tightbeam dramatically improves satellite communications, airborne and shipboard Wi-Fi, and ubiquitous cellular networks,” the company said.
