The modern valley of light
I’ve been thinking about Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s refrain — “Into the valley of Death / Rode the six hundred.” The poem is about courage, confusion, and a mistake that cost lives. Today the valley isn’t a stretch of Crimean mud; it’s the contested air between fibre routes, radio spectrum and sovereign infrastructure. Into that valley, a new brigade is charging — not on horseback, but on beams of infrared light.
When I first read about James Solomon (james@olee.space) and the work at olee.space, what grabbed me was the audacity: convert an idea that once belonged to laboratories — free-space optical communication (FSOC) and laser links — into field-ready systems that can carry gigabits across mountains, ships and stratospheric altitudes Source: Olee Space – Technology and reporting in the Hindustan Times.[^1]
Why this feels like a charge
- Speed without the trench-work: Fibre is brilliant, but laying and maintaining it across mountains, seas, and contested regions is expensive and slow. Laser links promise fibre-like bandwidth with deployment measured in hours, not months.[^1]
- Sovereignty and cost: Light doesn’t live in regulated RF bands the way radio does — that’s a freeing constraint. For countries building indigenous capabilities, that reduces dependency and licensing friction.[^1]
- The dual edge: The same physics that lets you move terabytes also powers directed-energy systems. That’s powerful and morally complex.
My personal take — cautious optimism
I have written about light-based connectivity before: think of macro-LiFi experiments and the idea of sending data between rooftops and towers as an alternative to laying endless cable (Light at the end of the Tower?). There’s continuity here: the same impulse — use light to leap over infrastructure gaps — now runs faster and farther because photonics matured and talented teams are building robust PAT (pointing, acquisition and tracking), modulation and adaptive optics stacks.[^2]
But speed and sovereignty don’t erase responsibility. When startups pair FSOC with defence-grade use cases, we must ask: are checks and norms in place? Who governs offensive uses of directed energy? Engineering can outpace governance; that’s rarely healthy. My hope is that innovators like James Solomon (james@olee.space) and their teams prioritize transparent safety practices even as they scale.
The practical picture — what I’m watching
- Terrestrial backbones and 5G backhaul: Buildings, towers and campuses where fibre is costly can be connected quickly using line-of-sight laser links.[^1]
- Mobile and maritime nodes: Ships, drones and high-altitude platforms can form a mesh that extends coverage without long cable chains.[^1]
- Quantum-resistant links and encryption at the physical layer: light can carry quantum-safe primitives — a differentiator for mission-critical comms.[^1]
A small, pragmatic wish-list for policymakers and customers
- Faster standards alignment and testbeds so deployment isn’t caught in regulatory limbo.
- Clear rules for defensive vs offensive directed-energy R&D, with transparency to build trust internationally.
- Public-private test corridors — civilian, academic and defence players should stress-test links together.
Final reflection
There is a poetry to this moment: light, once a metaphor for knowledge, is now literally carrying our knowledge between peaks and ships and satellites. I admire the engineering courage at olee.space and the humility needed to build tools that can be used for both connection and conflict. When the brigade of light charges forward, I want it to be a charge of clarity — of purpose, of ethics, and of resilient infrastructure.
Connect with the lead I’ve been reading about
- James Solomon (james@olee.space)
Regards,
Hemen Parekh
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[^1]: Reporting and company technology notes: Olee.Space technology pages and press coverage summarise FSOC capabilities and field demonstrations (see Olee Space – Technology and Hindustan Times coverage).
[^2]: I have explored light-based broadband ideas in earlier pieces such as "Light at the end of the Tower?" which anticipated macro LiFi / free-space optical ideas in civilian contexts.
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