Alistair Banham

The cutting-edge deployment by United States Army Europe and Africa is based on pureLiFi’s wireless technology that uses light rather than radio frequencies to transmit data. By harnessing the light spectrum, LiFi can unleash more reliable wireless communications with unparalleled security, compared to conventional technologies, such as cellular, WiFi and Bluetooth.

The deal with USAREUR-AF is the world’s first large scale deployment of LiFi. The deployment consists of thousands of certified office and field-deployable LiFi units in real tactical and strategic environments. Kitefin is a newly developed system with unique features for defence use cases.

An initial pilot of pureLiFi’s technology with the US ARMY Europe and Africa took place in 2019, convincing key Army stakeholders that LiFi would play a key role in the future of defence communications which resulted in the largest ever purchase of LiFi.

The deal comes on the back of pureLiFi’s recent £18 million series B investment to take LiFi mainstream. In 2019 pureLiFi launched gigabit components designed for integration into mobile phones and consumer electronics.

Alistair Banham, CEO of pureLiFi, explained the importance of this inflection point in the adoption of LiFi technology. He said: “This largest real-world deployment of LiFi with the US Army Europe and Africa is a testament to the benefits that LiFi can offer and the technology’s usability.

“If one of the most significant and advanced defence organisations in the world can rely on LiFi for the most critical of communications, LiFi can offer unprecedented benefits to the consumer. LiFi, like so many technologies before it, is on a classic journey of adoption in defence to wide-spread acceptance in the consumer market and eventually LiFi in everyone’s home

“Since offering our gigabit components to the market we have developed some very innovative proof of concept integrations with some of the world’s largest consumer electronic and mobile phone brands. We are closer than ever to seeing consumers having LiFi in their homes and their pockets.

“This first major deployment with the US ARMY Europe and Africa is just the beginning.”

pureLiFi will be shipping the first units of Kitefin in spring 2021, offering unprecedented security to defence and setting the scene for connecting everything and everyone with LiFi.