Super long-range Wi-Fi works at a range of 1.8 miles — HaLow standard aces a real-world test despite high interference

News
By Christopher Harper
published

Tested with a real-time video call.

A shot of Morse Micro's 3 kilometer HaLow Wi-Fi implementation tested along a San Francisco beach.
A shot of Morse Micro's 3 kilometer HaLow Wi-Fi implementation tested along a San Francisco beach. (Image credit: Morse Micro on YouTube)

Wireless tech company Morse Micro has achieved a new WiFi distance record of 1.8 miles (three kilometers) using the HaLow (802.11ah) standard. While HaLow was originally announced in 2016, its proper implementation is only just starting to pick up steam— and now, Morse Micro is pulling it off in a big way.

Morse Micro's connection speed during its testing ranged from 11 Megabits per second at 500 meters to just one Megabit per second at the maximum range of three kilometers, but this was still enough to maintain a working video call. The company uploaded the demonstration to YouTube, and we've embedded the video below if you want to see the testing in action.

Part of what makes this test impressive isn't just the sheer range at which a working Wi-Fi signal could be accomplished; it was its ability to work at that range despite all the real-world wireless interference of the surrounding urban area. Since ultra-long-range Wi-Fi devices like this are primarily targeted at Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios rather than media due to the lower speeds, this feat suggests that Wi-Fi HaLow is the ultimate long-range wireless solution.

Besides having long range and great resistance to interference, Wi-Fi HaLow also offers lower power consumption than exceedingly high-speed mainstream Wi-Fi solutions, like Wi-Fi 7. Morse Micro tested with its MM6108 Wi-Fi HaLow production silicon, which is Wi-Fi Alliance and FCC-certified. 

The chances are that HaLow and its speed compromises aren't in your best interests for your daily driver needs at home. But for backend devices in enterprise scenarios, or if you're mega-rich and own a mansion, Wi-Fi capable of pushing nearly two miles of range is quite impressive. People often walk that distance, or more, just to access public Wi-Fi— maybe one day we'll even see HaLow implementations for public Wi-Fi offerings at those longer ranges.

Christopher Harper
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bill001g
    Not sure this is really "new". Technically it is a new wifi standard but there has been equipment sold for long range wireless connections on the 900mhz band for many years. Many WISP ISP use a variation of LTE running on the public 900mhz frequencies. It is unlikely commonly used wifi devices...like phones..will add 900mhz wifi support so it is still a very niche use case.
    Reply
  • usertests
    Still waiting for meshnet WANs to take off.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Part of what makes this test impressive isn't just the sheer range at which a working Wi-Fi signal could be accomplished; it was its ability to work at that range despite all the real-world wireless interference of the surrounding urban area.
    ...but I'll bet not anyone else using specifically 802.11ah! If this were already deployed at scale, I sure doubt they'd have gotten it to work nearly that well.

    Of course, I say that without knowing anything specifically about 802.11ah, but I just think the collision-avoidance techniques wifi uses probably can't scale well to a high-density deployment environment.

    This could still be very useful for things like agriculture, where more machinery is becoming wifi-enabled and the amount of interference is going to be low by definition.
    Reply
  • bill001g
    bit_user said:
    ...but I'll bet not anyone else using specifically 802.11ah! If this were already deployed at scale, I sure doubt they'd have gotten it to work nearly that well.

    Not 802.11ah but there are many things like the automatic wireless meter readers used on water and power meters. Many of these run in the 900mhz radio band. That could be a massive amount of traffic in areas with apartments that have all separate meters. I know the outdoor sensors on a old weather station thing I had all ran in 900mhz. Radio signal is radio signal it will all interfere.
    Reply
  • Rob1C
    Excellent, 900 MHz is the frequency that industrial microwave ovens operate on. https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/115059/microwave-oven-operating-frequencies
    So I can heat my lunch.
    Reply
  • TJ Hooker
    Rob1C said:
    Excellent, 900 MHz is the frequency that industrial microwave ovens operate on. https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/115059/microwave-oven-operating-frequencies
    So I can heat my lunch.
    Luckily you need not wait for 900 MHz Wifi to heat your lunch. Regular wifi (and Bluetooth, and cordless phones if anyone still has one) operate at 2.4 GHz (in addition to 5/6 GHz for newer wifi standards), the same as home microwave ovens.

    Of course, finding a signal in either band powerful enough to heat anything fast enough to notice may be a little tricky...
    Reply
  • Rob1C
    TJ Hooker said:
    Luckily you need not wait for 900 MHz Wifi to heat your lunch. Regular wifi (and Bluetooth, and cordless phones if anyone still has one) operate at 2.4 GHz (in addition to 5/6 GHz for newer wifi standards), the same as home microwave ovens.

    Of course, finding a signal in either band powerful enough to heat anything fast enough to notice may be a little tricky...
    Actually most any radio frequency can be used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_heating#Radio-frequency_heating
    It was more of a joke/suggestion that long range Wi-Fi would use more power (though it gets some of its range from the lower frequency) than the GHz+ bands; thus polluting the band at a greater distance, making it harder to find a mostly clear channel.
    Reply