Transcelestial has developed a technology that uses lasers to transmit data at fiber-optic speeds without the use of fiber optics. T-Mobile tested Transcelestial's laser communications at Coachella this year. The startup aims to bridge the digital divide from both the ground and space.
What if you could provide the same speeds as fiber optic broadband, without the hassle and expense of laying actual fiber optics? Singapore-based startup Transcelestial is developing a device that uses laser beams to transmit data between two endpoints, without the need for underground fiber optic infrastructure.
“If we can take fiber-like speeds from the fiber optic core and run them wirelessly, questions about affordable, high-bandwidth connectivity suddenly become easier to answer,” said Rohit Jha, CEO and co-founder of TransCelestial.
The company's CENTAURI devices come in two versions, 10G and 25G, and are able to “stabilize these laser beams over long distances” while taking into account a variety of weather conditions.
Transcelestial CENTAURI Device (Transcelestial)
That capability has caught the eye of major carriers: T-Mobile unveiled Transcelestial's laser technology at this year's Coachella music festival, marking the carrier's first public announcement that it will deploy laser communications for 5G at a large event.
“We were able to shine a laser up close on one of four temporary 5G cell towers that were on a truck next to the main stage at Coachella,” Jha told Fierce. That laser then powered a 5G network for thousands of T-Mobile customers.
As a result, TransCelestial's technology “gained speeds of about 150 Mbps to a single phone,” he said, “which is 25 times faster than some of the phone company networks, and it was literally set up in a day.”
In addition to the U.S. and Singapore, Transcelestial is deploying laser communications throughout Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands. This expansion was fueled by $10 million in funding that Transcelestial secured in 2023. To date, the company has raised $24 million.
Transcelestial is working to bridge the digital divide in remote parts of the world, for example by providing broadband to “more than 20 villages” across Malaysia and rolling out a 10Gbps link to a university in India.
“My personal goal is to see how I can get involved with BEAD,” Jha said. “I think there have been a lot of attempts to make it (national scale), and experience outside the U.S. has shown that national scale is not possible (with fiber alone).”
to infinity and beyond
As the name suggests, Transcelestial wants to take the laser technology that works between buildings a step further and reach all the way out into outer space.
The company's vision is to place satellites in low orbit “like Starlink” to capture data from “locations where data centers and cables are plentiful” and distribute it to cities, towns, and villages.
“Think of it like building a submarine cable network in space,” Jha said.
But TransCelestial's technology has the potential to be much faster than standard satellite communications, he noted.
“We have the capacity to transmit tens to hundreds of gigabits per second from orbit, and eventually terabits per second,” Jha says, “which means we could drop giant pipes from orbit directly into cities and towns.”
The LEO network, called “The Ring,” has a long way to go before it's available to consumers: Testing is currently underway, and Transcelestial plans to launch a beta service in 2026.
On the cloud side, the company is plotting ways to build data centers in space: Transcelestial partnered with Axiom Space in June to focus on demonstrating interoperability between a laser communications network and an orbital data center.
Just routing data in space isn't enough, Jha said: “We also need to complement it by putting data centers closer to our customers.”
With a data center in orbit, an organization's data, computing, AI, “all of that is actually sitting directly above us, so routing latency and so on are effectively much lower.”
Axiom is working on building the world's first commercial space station, which is expected to launch within the next few years. This type of space station could potentially house a “giant data center.”
“Our satellites are like edge data centers, so they have small computing and storage capabilities,” Jha said, “but when we need raw power, we can offload it to the larger space station.”
Of course, simply shooting down lasers from space won't instantly solve the connectivity gap on the ground — local delivery remains a challenge, he continues — which is why partnerships with ISPs, 5G providers, port operators and others will be key.
“There is no single thing that can solve the internet globally. We need to think more holistically,” Jha added.
