Wireless internet that goes 830 miles or over 1300 kilometers if you're not American or British
Amazing, but how is this possible believe it or not? This distance was a world record set by using a protocol called
Lorawan after trackers were installed on a fishing boat off the coast of Portugal and connected to a gateway in the Canary Islands
They were able to do this partly because Lorawan uses relatively low frequencies around approximately the 900 megahertz mark for comparison
Most standard Wi-Fi connections use either 2.4 or 5 or 6 gigahertz frequencies due to the laws of physics
Lower frequency signals can travel farther and bend around obstacles more effectively and penetrate through them
But even so the amount of data that a signal can carry
Decreases as the frequency gets lower and the signal travels farther. So let's be a little more realistic
What kinds of distances and speeds can you really expect with a 900 megahertz connection?
Well in addition to Lorawan, there's also a Wi-Fi standard called halo for which devices have just started to hit the market
The ranges are a little bit different Lorawan can get around 5 kilometers in a city and about 10 in a more rural area where there aren't as many structures to block the signal
However, Lorawan speeds are very low
Very low We're talking only as fast as a dial-up connection under ideal circumstances often lower than that
Halo on the other hand has a shorter range of about one kilometer though
We can reach farther under good conditions where you have a clear line of sight
Realistically speeds can range from about 150 kilobits per second to around 15
Megabits per second depending on how far away you are and any obstructions in the signal's path
Though the theoretical maximums are higher So what exactly is the point of having long range internet if it's so slow if we're talking about the
Insanely slow speeds of Lorawan it turns out there are plenty of devices out there that don't need much bandwidth at all
Think about a moisture sensor that a farmer wants to check without having to go out into the fields
Tracking of mass transit buses or even radiation sensors in nuclear plants that can penetrate through thick layers of concrete
Additionally Amazon sidewalk network that uses echo and ring products to link IOT devices like sensors and smart lights
Uses Lorawan so that the signal can cover longer distances and before you helium people start freak now. Yes helium crypto
Yes, that's Lorawan 2 and because you don't need much electrical power to move such small amounts of data
There are Lorawan devices that can run off batteries for many years before needing to be replaced
Halo's faster speeds though mean that it can be used for applications other than just IOT
Although these speeds are still obviously much slower than the average internet connection
They're still fast enough to complete simple tasks and even video calls at long ranges
This was actually shown recently in a test conducted by the company Morse micro
Which maintained a one megabit per second speed over a distance of three kilometers even with urban interference. This is cool
It's cool, but most typical client devices don't use the halo protocol. So what could this mean for you?
Well, there are wireless bridge kits that you can buy to send a halo signal from one location
Receive it in another and then convert it to a more common Wi-Fi standard that client devices like PCs and phones can use
So while it obviously won't replace a regular home Wi-Fi connection and is still primarily more for IOT
It could help with basic connectivity in rural areas without much wired infrastructure
Or if you're just rich have a huge tract of land and want to throw a bone to the peasants staying in the guest house
This is the protocol for you. So thanks for watching guys
If you like this video, maybe you want to step back and see just what is a modem and a switch and a router anyway
What's the difference? We got a video on that check it out