It is ridiculous that in 2024, most Zimbabweans are still not connected to any WiFi network throughout the day. In developed countries, WiFi connectivity is second only to urban WiFi connectivity, and most of it is also free.
Why don’t most Zimbabwean restaurants offer free WiFi? – For example. There are many reasons: it’s too expensive, the demand is too great and you get bogged down by freeloaders.
Well, we’ll have to wait until some of these issues are fixed, but for now we can highlight some promising developments in WiFi technology.
Long range WiFi is here. There is a company called Morse Micro that is experimenting with a new WiFi standard that will enable long range WiFi, the 900MHz Wi-Fi HaLow standard.
Morse Micro has released a video showing how great this WiFi is. They were able to receive usable radio signals at a range of 3 km. Friends, you know that 4G cell towers have a range of 3 to 6.5 km.
Therefore, this WiFi standard allows you to enjoy WiFi with a range comparable to that of good old mobile networks.
It’s crazy, but if you can connect to a WiFi network 2 miles away, you can stay connected to your home WiFi even at your local shopping mall. Or my church, or other places I frequent. That’s ridiculous.
Before you get your hopes up, they’ve demonstrated that you can receive a usable signal up to 3km away, but the WiFi limitations still exist. A single router does not compete with mobile networks in terms of the number of people it serves.
If you have a home WiFi network that is certified for less than 10 users, you cannot open an Internet cafe serving people within a 3 km radius under the HaLow standard.
The speed HaLow can manage is impressive. Morse Micro made video calls at various distance intervals and measured the average speed. I got 1Mbps in 3km.
The announced HaLow standard had data rates of 150 kbps to 78 Mbps.
Friends, most of the time you can’t get it from your mobile network. However, don’t expect that a TelOne ADSL connection that won’t allow him to pull out 1Mbps even if he sits right next to the router, but will magically give him 1Mbps when he’s 3km away from home.
The Morse Micro test was conducted on an empty beach, but there were many buildings along the coast that interfered with the signal. So they say it was a good demonstration of what to expect in the real world.
I know the entrepreneurs among us are already brainstorming ways to take advantage of the 3km range. Perhaps you could share your WiFi connection with your neighbors and pool your funds to provide unlimited connectivity to nearby homes.
There’s even more to do within the 3km range. Let’s hope the standard is finalized and released soon.
