Equipment provider pureLiFi secured a $4.2 million US Army Europe and Africa contract to deploy Li-Fi, which uses light to transfer data, in what it claimed was the first large-scale deployment of the technology.

The company is providing its Kitefin technology to the branch of the US military. In a statement, pureLiFi highlighted reliability and security benefits of Li-Fi compared with mobile, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth alternatives.

PureLiFi stated the contract covers deployment of thousands of Li-Fi units “in real tactical and strategic environments”. It added Kitefin offers “unique features for defence use cases”, eliminating the risk of detection in radio communications and being capable of being rapidly deployed.

CEO Alistair Banham said the US Army contract was “just the beginning” and paved the way for the adoption of the technology by consumers.

In November 2019, Banham told Mobile World Live the technology could be ripe for take off this year, citing consumer use cases including gaming and extended reality.