Startup Mantra: Laser tech reinvents connectivity
Olee.Space by Citoto Digital Personality Pvt Ltd., founded in 2023, has brought about a big change, building a new way to transmit data, via laser beams–cheap, effective, and fast
In 2017, James Solomon, now founder of Olee.Space, was interning with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on materials used for missile warheads. He was at a loose end since he delivered the internship project earlier than expected, so James, on a whim, got into communication technology. Says he, “That year, Jio had come into the market fiercely, and that brought about a shift in the telecom industry. Soon, only Airtel and Jio were the serious players in the market. The world was moving towards higher bandwidth with a limited number of data centers.
How data centres work
Data centres are used to store data. The faster you store, the higher the speed at which you can pull the data. In 2017, India had fewer data centres. Says James, “In 2017, we had very few data centres that would route the data for the internet. Then it was just one data centre that would route the internet for five or six states. What companies did was put in a centre for each state and invested in 4G underground cables, so this gave speed and an edge to computing.”
Problem area
The internet travels throughout the world via submarine cables, underground cables, and fibre optic cables that connect to the nearest tower and then to the telecom exchange. Says James, “In India, all cables come in through Mumbai and exit via Vizag.” While casually carousing through communications technology, James saw one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb. Says he, “Speed needed more towers and cables. The internet infrastructure depends on fibre. And this has its own limitations. One, it is expensive to deploy. Two, it is hard to maintain in remote areas or on the hills and mountains, and in the case of defence and space applications, it is simply impossible to use.”
James could clearly see the problem. Says he, “Our country needed a reliable, high-speed communication system without the dependence on physical cables, and one that would work well on land, sea, in the stratosphere, and in space.”
Transmitting data without cables
“Initially, I worked on a technology called Television White Space (TVWS). White Space is the band left after the government completes its spectrum auctioning. It is the ‘leftover’ that no one uses. So we proposed to DoT to allow us to use the TVWS since it’s 96% unoccupied. If we could put the internet through this, then it could benefit Tier 2 and 3 cities. But they refused as it is reserved for emergency situations like wartime.”
James then moved his attention to LoRa (Long Range), which enables wireless communication over long distances with minimal power consumption. However, both these technologies came to naught as they required a spectrum licence.
Eventually, James concluded that it would have to be satellite telecom from where he could get a band from space. Says he, “I reached out to Starlink, Kuiper, and One Web, and these guys gave a good response. But the problem was that the space spectrum is governed mostly by the European Space Agencies, so that too did not work out.
Initial steps
Not to be undone by such disappointments, James tried out his own experiment to transmit data via laser beams. The breakthrough for James came when he realised that data could be transmitted via light wirelessly. Says he, “light does not operate in a spectrum, so it straightaway gets rid of that cost.” He began his experiments in 2019 by building a 10-foot table using laser light to transmit data. “In a fibre optic cable, the glass surrounding the light protects it. So there is no medium impurity –translated it meant no data loss. But how could I transmit data via light that passed through smoke, dust, rain, and yet not have that compromise the data?”
James knew that there were Light Modulation Techniques (LMT) and Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT) systems. LMT is a method of changing one or more parameters of a light wave (amplitude, frequency, phase, or polarization) to transmit data.
PAT refers to the pointing, acquisition, and tracking of a laser beam for communication. The PAT system establishes and maintains a crucial link between the transmitter and receiver. The laser beam is directed or pointed towards the receiver. Acquisition is the initial process of detecting the signal from the other terminal and establishing a preliminary link. And tracking is continuously adjusting the beam direction to compensate for movement, vibrations, and atmospheric disturbances to maintain a stable, high-precision link. The technologies were there, but the question was how well he improvised them to get better results.
Increasing efficiency
Olee.Space worked hard on this for a period of four years to get better every time. Says James, “We kept increasing our efficiency, built gimbals, cameras, tripod mountings, and optics technologies around the system for internet data transfer. It took four years of continuous research and development, over 27 engineers and scientists, and collaborations with international organisations. We also built strong partnerships with IITs, defense research bodies, and international universities for technology validation and co-development.” And by 2023, they managed to achieve what they sought to do – transfer data via light efficiently.
Says James, “Our system uses an invisible laser beam to send data directly through the air — like shining a torch from one mountain to another, but carrying gigabits of information per second. This eliminates the need for underground cables, reduces cost, and works even in extreme conditions like deserts, sea, or stratospheric balloons.
“Our FSOC systems are field-tested, high-performance, and cost-effective. They provide 1.25 Gbps to 100 Gbps connectivity, can be deployed in hours, and work without the need for fiber cables. We’ve already demonstrated success with the Indian Navy, Air Force, and defense agencies, along with commercial campus and telecom networks.”
The combination of speed, security, and scalability gives Olee.Space a strong edge both in India and globally.
Funds
So far, Olee.Space has invested ₹2.5 crore of its own and angel funds. They secured ₹24 crore from Indian and global VCs, taking it to a total of ₹27 crore.
Competition
Their competitors are Mynaric (Germany), Skyloom (US), Transcelestial (Singapore), Aalyria (US). Says James, “They focus mainly on LEO satellite links, which are costly and are limited in adaptability. Whereas Olee.Space provides a complete terrestrial–stratospheric–space solution, with defense-tested reliability and much lower cost per Gbps. Our systems are designed in India, for the world, making them faster to adapt and easier to scale across markets.”
Future plans
By 2027, Olee.Space aims to launch 100 Gbps bidirectional FSOC systems, deploy 10,000+ terrestrial and airborne optical laser nodes across India, expand manufacturing in Pune and then Bengaluru in India and Vietnam, and establish a global testbed for satellite-to-ground optical communication in collaboration with European partners. With the rapid growth of internet penetration, this seems like a huge possibility.
