Velmenni, a startup based in Estonia, has taken Li-Fi technology from the laboratory to commercial use as part of a commercial pilot at offices and industrial environments in Tallinn.
The Li-Fi technology that Velmenni is testing is able to send data at up to 1GBps, more than 100 times the speed of current Wi-Fi technologies, IBTimes UK reported.
"We are doing a few pilot projects within different industries where we can use the VLC (visible light communication) technology," Deepak Solanki, CEO of Velmenni, said in an interview with IBTimes UK.
"Currently we have designed a smart lighting solution for an industrial environment where the data communication is done through light,” Solanki was quoted as saying. “We are also doing a pilot project with a private client where we are setting up a Li-Fi network to access the internet in their office space."
Invented by Harald Haas, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, Li-Fi is a wireless technology that allows data to be sent at high speeds using visible light communication (VLC). Researchers have achieved speeds of 224 gigabits per second in lab conditions.
Li-Fi allows for greater security on local networks as light cannot pass through walls, which also means there is less interference between devices.
According to Solanki, success of the pilot projects could see Li-Fi technology rolled out for consumers within the next three to four years, allowing people to access the internet using the light bulbs in their home.
Li-Fi is not expected to completely replace Wi-Fi, but the two technologies could be used in parallel to create more efficient networks.