Wi-Fi link stretches 190 miles

PEDDLER OF wireless kit Ubiquiti Networks has today announced the new world record for a 5GHz Wi-Fi link along with the Italian Center for Radio Activities, or CISAR. Er...

The link, which bagged an impressive distance of 188.89 miles, was set up using Ubiquiti's rather extreme XtremeRange5 High-Power Carrier Class mini-PCI radio modules and 35dBi 5 GHz parabolic dish antennas. Blimey.

A connection was made all the way from old Sardinia Island into central Italy and managed to achieve a data rate of around 5Mbps.

Mirco Paesante of CISAR - a group of Italian amateur radio operators - bizarrely plugged Ubiquiti's kit thusly: "The alignment of two 35dBi antennas at 188.89 miles spanning sea and land is a very difficult and complicated technical endeavor, but with the Ubiquiti Networks XR5 this was made simple."

So what's the big deal? Well, now ham radio operators on Sardinia can keep in touch with their pals on the Italian peninsula. Thank heavens for that. µ