Cutting the cords

• “I finally realized why the internet sucked,” quipped Rohit Jha, Co-founder & CEO of 500-backed Transcelestial, a deep space and communications technology startup that aims to make the internet more accessible — using lasers.
• This ‘huge nerd’ started his journey studying engineering in Singapore on a scholarship and then worked on its first space program and first homegrown satellite.
• The realization came later in his banking career, when he discovered the problem: most of the world’s internet comes from a vast network of fiber optic cables that are laid across the ocean floor, which can cost billions of dollars to lay.
• So, the companies responsible for bringing connectivity are often motivated to only invest in those cities where they have a high enough chance of getting a return on investment (ROI).
• This means tier 1 cities like San Francisco or New York City get priority, while areas that are less developed or remote may not get the same access.
• Launched in 2016, Transcelestial has raised about US$24M to date. 
• With lasers, Transcelestial enables Internet at the speed of fiber, but the price economics and deployment speed of wireless technologies. “We can dramatically reduce years and months, to days and weeks when setting up the internet for not only a home, but even a village or a town,” Rohit shared.
• “As humanity expands, we need communication and high speed connectivity in deep space,” he added. Transcelestial is working on expanding in deep space and building the infrastructure that’s needed for automation as well as maybe even human settlement in the next couple of decades.
• Read the full story on CNBC.