(Updates with details from Taara throughout.)

Alphabet's (GOOG, GOOGL) Taara project is spinning out of Google X to become an independent company offering high-speed internet connectivity using beams of light, Taara Chief Executive Mahesh Krishnaswamy said in a blog post Monday.

"We've raised a round of funding led by Series X Capital to deploy and scale Taara's groundbreaking new approach to wireless optical communications," Krishnaswamy said.

The move is seen to challenge satellite network Starlink's dominance as a provider of high-bandwidth services in remote areas, the Financial Times reported.

Taara uses light beams to transmit information at speeds of up to 20 gigabits per second and across distances of up to 20 kilometers, according to the blog post.

Taara has already deployed hundreds of links in more than a dozen countries and has partners including T-Mobile (TMUS) in the US and Airtel in India, Krishnaswamy said.

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