Google's X Labs to share FSOC technology for Andhra's fiber grid

In a first, X Development LLC, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc, will supply and deploy two thousand cutting-edge Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) links for Andhra Pradesh (AP) fiber-grid.

FSFC is an optical communication technology that uses light to wirelessly transmit data to telecommunication and internet applications. The technology remained outside the commercial applications for long owing to distance, speed, and efficiency related problems, which are a thing of past going by the specs of SPOC links being offered to AP government.

Known for its work on the development of Google's driverless car, X Labs is going to implement FSOC technology that can provide wireless internet connectivity with as much as 20-gigabit speed and to a distance of up to 20 km, in the state.

A delegation headed by AP IT minister Nara Lokesh entered into an agreement with X Labs CEO Astro Teller for this collaboration at the latter's headquarters in Mountainview in California late on Friday, after months of testing the suitability of this technology for AP fiber grid.

AP executed this 3-in-1 (phone, internet, and television) connectivity project entirely using the electric poles, stringing 24,000 km of overhead fiber cable, and is expected to cover 85 per cent of the households in the state. The government proposes to use FSOC technology to connect the remaining areas that are cut-off by difficult terrain, forest areas, river crossings, railway crossings etc. besides increasing the network reliability.

Samsung joins self-driving car race, will test technology in California

Samsung Electronics has joined the self-driving car race in California with a permit from the state to test the technology on the home turf of Tesla, Google, and Apple.

A California Department of Motor Vehicles website on Friday showed that the South Korean consumer technology giant's name had been added to a list of more than three dozen companies with permits to test self-driving cars in the state.

Names on the list included major car makers, Apple, Baidu, Tesla, and Waymo, which is owned by Google-parent Alphabet.

Samsung Electronics early this year got approval in South Korea to test the technology on roads in that country, according to media there.

Samsung Electronics last year announced a deal to buy US auto parts maker Harman International Industries for $8 billion in a bid to enter the growing market for automotive technology to produce "connected" cars.

Samsung described the deal as a chance to build a strong foundation in a self-driving car technology expected to boom in the years ahead.

The Samsung group dabbled in carmaking business in the 1990s but was soon forced to sell the business to the French carmaker Renault in the wake of the crippling 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.
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