TERASi, a Stockholm, Sweden-based manufacturer of radio equipment, has introduced the RU1 device, a mm wave radio that it says can bypass established telecommunication infrastructure.
The company says the RU1 is as much as 40 times smaller, 100 times lighter, and 50 times faster than technology aimed at providing the same capabilities.
The new TERASi device is optimized for military, industrial and disaster relief utilizations. It uses the company’s patented Aircore technology and is battery operated, which the company says eliminates the need to dig trenches or lay power lines. It can be deployed quickly and on drones. The focused signals reduce the risk of detection.
The company apparently is aiming for the same market as low earth orbit (LEO) providers. The press release points to Elon Musk reportedly cutting off Starlink services during the Ukraine-Russia war as evidence that it is unwise to rely on commercial networks for mission-critical tasks. The release adds that Starlink and Amazon Kuiper, another LEO provider, offer insufficient bandwidth for intensive tasks.
“With the RU1, we’ve created the GoPro of backhaul radios. We’ve taken what used to be a bulky, immobile piece of infrastructure and shrunk it down into something you can hold in the palm of your hand,” TERASi CEO and Co-founder James Campion said in a press release about the device.
“Our mission is to give defense forces, disaster response teams, and critical industries the ability to create secure, high-capacity networks instantly, anywhere in the world, without relying on satellites or fixed infrastructure. The RU1 proves that size and mobility do not have to come at the expense of performance or security.”
Technical innovation and miniaturization is making a greater variety of approaches to telecommunications possible. TERASi claims that the RU1 device offers multiple advantages over traditional or even other nascent technologies such as LEO.
Another example is mobile communications that eschews towers and to directly link devices and satellites. In April, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) authorized AST SpaceMobile permission to test the approach on Band 14 spectrum, which is reserved for public safety. The request was made in coordination with AT&T.
