Starlink faces direct competition in India’s emerging satellite internet market from Eutelsat OneWeb (backed by billionaire Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Group) and Reliance Jio Space Technology, owned by India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani.

The scheme is mainly aimed at small internet and telephony service providers operating in rural, mountainous and remote areas, and is conceived as a complement to fiber, not a substitute. The spectrum could also be used to reinforce transmission routes in high-demand areas. The 37-38.6 GHz range, in particular, belongs to the so-called millimeter waves (mmWave). It is considered a premium band, intended for very high transmission capacity. It is used, for example, in 5G systems for high-speed private industrial networks, fixed wireless backhaul links, and space research and satellite services. Not by chance, Mexico also announced a new project to launch a geostationary telecommunications satellite in the first quarter of 2030, with the aim of expanding internet access in remote communities and strengthening national security.

Access to reliable internet now shapes access to opportunity. For job seekers, students, patients managing care online, or families staying in touch—fast, stable connectivity isn't optional; it's the foundation for full participation in modern life. Yet millions of low-income households continue to navigate glaring digital gaps, often forced to make trade-offs between a monthly internet bill and other basic needs. When school lets out, the strain intensifies. Students lose access to classroom Wi-Fi, and families that rely on school networks face weeks—sometimes months—without consistent access to educational tools or essential digital services. That’s where summer internet initiatives step in. These programs don’t just bridge gaps; they power progress.

Summer has a funny math problem. More free time, more spending, same paycheck. But the earning side of the equation has never been easier to fix. Independent and supplemental work keeps growing, with surveys consistently showing that more than a third of US adults earn money outside a single traditional job. Here are five realistic ways to join them, ranked by effort, with honest numbers.

DE-CIX, the world's leading carrier and data center-neutral Internet Exchange operator, has partnered with TOWARDEX to connect Boston's Hub Express System (HEX)—America's first Meet-Me Street—to DE-CIX's Internet Exchange in New York. HEX is a revolutionary subterranean telecom corridor enabling network operators, regional broadband providers, and data centers to interconnect fibers across Boston without reliance on traditional carrier hotels or monthly cross-connect fees. Through this Carrier Turnkey Connectivity partnership, participants gain direct access to DE-CIX's peering fabric, bypassing conventional interconnect bottlenecks and achieving ultra-low latency connectivity at significantly reduced costs. Organizations not directly linked to HEX can access the network through participating fiber providers offering dark fiber and Ethernet services. This strategic initiative represents a breakthrough for New England's internet infrastructure, marking the first time a major Tier 1 Internet Exchange has been deployed at a large-scale manhole system, democratizing network interconnection access and reducing barriers to entry for carriers and enterprises throughout the Northeast.

Pakistan faces a significant geographic digital divide, with rural mobile internet penetration at only 50% compared to 65% in urban areas, according to the GSMA's "State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2026" report. To address this disparity, multiple connectivity solutions are being deployed. Solar-powered infrastructure, utilized by companies like Engro Enfrashare, provides reliable off-grid electricity for thousands of telecom towers across remote regions including Balochistan. The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority has recommended licensing multiple low-earth orbit satellite providers—including Starlink, OneWeb, Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology, and Amazon's Project Kuiper—to deliver broadband where conventional fiber installation is economically unfeasible. Additionally, Kacific Broadband Satellites has partnered locally to deliver up to 60 Mbps connectivity using the Paksat MM1 satellite's Ka-band spot beams across 20,000 sites in remote territories like Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. The Universal Service Fund, financed through levies on mobile carriers, has expanded connectivity to over 16.2 million people across 9,400 underserved communities. Recent approvals worth Rs 13 billion will fund fiber-optic projects covering 1,428 kilometers and broadband initiatives expected to connect approximately 5.5 million additional people across eleven districts.

American communities have faced unprecedented stress on emergency communications infrastructure in recent years, from natural disasters to supply chain disruptions following the COVID-19 pandemic. When global logistics broke down starting in 2020, radio equipment manufacturers experienced component shortages that extended lead times for repeaters, transceivers, and related hardware from weeks to months, leaving jurisdictions reliant on single vendors or equipment sources vulnerable. However, communities that emerged with functional systems weren't necessarily those with the largest budgets, but rather those thinking strategically about resilience. Along the Gulf Coast, several counties partnered with local amateur radio clubs to build distributed, redundant, locally maintainable networks. This approach included establishing multiple repeater sites with diverse power sources—grid power, generators, and solar-charged batteries—so traffic routes through alternate sites when one fails. These forward-thinking jurisdictions also stockpiled regionally sourced critical spare parts including power supplies, connectors, coax, and backup transceivers rather than relying solely on distant just-in-time suppliers. These lessons demonstrate that emergency communications resilience depends less on budget size and more on redundancy, local sourcing, and human infrastructure investment.

The Wichita Meshtastic community has experienced remarkable growth since its inception in April 2025, expanding from a single Reddit post to a robust mesh network of 724 nodes spanning over 100 miles. Seventeen months of community-driven development has produced 213 active nodes in the past month, with the longest confirmed direct link covering 26 miles. The network operates through approximately 2.3 average hops via 27 active relays, demonstrating redundancy and resilience. Community engagement proved essential, with members sharing resources and coordinating through a Discord server that grew to 248 members. The team developed custom bots—fl0v, HYDD, cbot, and HYDB—using modified open source software to test connectivity and generate coverage maps displayed at map.flyovermesh.org. Ten nodes handle the majority of traffic, with Buffalo and Panther One leading relay activity. Of nodes with neighbors, 71 percent can reach three or more other nodes, ensuring message routing around failures. This grassroots initiative demonstrates how decentralized mesh networks can provide reliable, independent communication infrastructure through collaborative community participation.

OVMesh, the Ohio Valley Mesh network, is maintaining minimal Meshtastic infrastructure to support users who prefer to continue using the platform while transitioning toward MeshCore as their primary network architecture. Rather than immediately decommissioning functional long-range Meshtastic links, OVMesh will evaluate individual nodes based on coverage quality, reliability, and performance as MeshCore deployment progresses. The organization has published comprehensive transition documentation and a dedicated Meshtastic guide containing regional setup specifications, firmware versions, application links, channel configurations, and troubleshooting resources. This approach allows gradual migration while preserving existing functionality. Community members are encouraged to consult available documentation and engage with fellow users to assess compatibility and local coverage considerations before deciding whether to transition their radio equipment. OVMesh's strategic focus and infrastructure investment are shifting toward MeshCore, though legacy Meshtastic support will remain available during this transition period.

At Lost Lands 2026, a message on Totem’s Unity Mesh Network™ made 35 hops: it was passed from one Totem Compass to the next 35 times to reach its destination, with no cell towers, no Wi-Fi, and no phones involved. That’s an all-time record for the network, and it’s five times the maximum hop setting of Meshtastic, one of the best-known off-grid mesh platforms.

CascadiaMesh represents an innovative approach to emergency communications infrastructure through a solar-powered mesh network system. The network utilizes solar-powered repeaters that enable continued operation during power outages caused by natural disasters or infrastructure failures. During severe storms in the Seattle area in fall 2025, communities affected by power disruptions and cellular service outages maintained communication capabilities using MeshCore companion devices connected to CascadiaMesh. The system's resilience was further validated during Washington's 2025 Great ShakeOut earthquake drill, where the network successfully handled a simulated surge in emergency traffic, with most messages delivering reliably. The solar-powered architecture offers practical installation advantages, eliminating the need for grid connections, electrical infrastructure modifications, or extensive drilling. This makes deployment particularly feasible for rooftops and space-constrained locations. With adequate southern sky exposure, these repeaters can operate continuously throughout the year, providing independent communications infrastructure that proves critical when conventional cellular systems are damaged or overloaded during emergencies.

For years, passengers tolerated terrible in-flight internet. You paid twenty dollars, opened Gmail, waited, tried again, and eventually gave up. Nobody expected to hold a video call halfway across the Atlantic or work normally from a laptop for six hours. That is changing because the underlying technology has changed. Emirates now has A380 with more than 2 Gbps of aggregate Starlink capacity across the aircraft, while its first generation of A380 connectivity had less than 1 Mbps available for the whole plane.

This paper provides an overview of potential alternatives for providing wireless backhaul in regions that suffer from the lack of fiber optic-connectivity to the core network. These regions can be (i) rural and remote locations, (ii) low-income neighborhoods in urban and suburban regions, and (iii) post-disaster locations suffering from the destruction of cellular infrastructure. For these scenarios, extending fiber optic cables to such locations might be extremely expensive, impractical, or simply not feasible. Hence, in order to enhance the backhaul connectivity in these scenarios, we study the potential and applicability of the integrated access and backhaul (IAB) technique, and a hybrid combination of IAB and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) that includes high/low altitude platforms (HAPs/LAPs) and low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. We conclude this article by discussing the design considerations and potential research problems that would enable efficient deployment of such solutions.

This article addresses the technical challenge of optimizing radio mesh networks by implementing separate configurations for local and long-distance traffic. The authors propose an RF bridge solution that connects a high-bandwidth backhaul network to a standard local mesh without creating visible network boundaries. The local mesh operates on a standard 62.5 kHz preset, efficient for neighborhood coverage but limited to low power under FCC Part 15 regulations. The backhaul solution uses a 500 kHz preset, which at its 6 dB bandwidth qualifies as digital modulation under FCC 902–928 MHz rules and permits up to 1 Watt conducted power—essential for reliable long-distance hops. This wider channel increases data rates, reduces packet transmission time, and minimizes retransmissions, accelerating traffic propagation across the mesh. The authors conducted Test1 from September 11–15, 2026, to validate the 500 kHz preset's backhaul performance and FCC compliance using their LoRa bridging guide. Key considerations include managing the wider channel's larger spectral footprint and coordinating high-power nodes to prevent interference with the local mesh.

Community Lighthouses represent an innovative grassroots resilience initiative addressing Louisiana's chronic power outages and climate vulnerabilities. Following Hurricane Ida's 2021 devastation, which left parts of New Orleans without electricity for twelve days and triggered at least eleven heat-related deaths, faith and community leaders developed the concept of solar microgrids installed at churches, synagogues, mosques, and community centers. Pastor Shawn Anglim's First Grace United Methodist Church exemplifies the model, providing charging stations and air conditioning to over one hundred residents during Hurricane Francine's 2024 blackout. Together New Orleans and Together Louisiana launched the project in 2022 after securing one million dollars from the Greater New Orleans Foundation. Currently, fourteen Community Lighthouses operate in New Orleans with six additional installations across Louisiana, targeting sixty-six more facilities. This initiative matters significantly as blackouts coinciding with heatwaves are expected to increase dramatically due to climate change, and Louisiana already experiences the highest frequency of power interruptions and longest-lasting blackouts nationwide. The program provides critical backup power during both emergencies and routine outages, enhancing community resilience and protecting vulnerable populations from heat-related health crises.

Meshtastic solar devices represent a significant advancement in off-grid communication technology, combining open-source LoRa radio firmware with solar power to enable reliable long-distance messaging without cellular infrastructure or traditional power sources. These low-power units integrate a rechargeable battery charged by a solar panel, allowing users—including hikers, disaster responders, ranchers, and emergency organizations—to maintain connectivity across miles through mesh networking. The devices operate by relaying text and GPS data between nodes, with each unit rebroadcasting messages it hasn't encountered previously, creating an expanding communication network. A key advantage lies in their operational sustainability: once installed, the system incurs virtually no ongoing costs, eliminating subscription fees, cellular bills, and frequent battery replacements. The solar configuration proves particularly valuable for fixed relay installations on properties, vehicles, rooftops, or fence posts, where even modest solar panels provide sufficient charging in most weather conditions. This technology matters because it democratizes reliable communication in remote areas and emergency situations where conventional infrastructure fails, offering practical, cost-effective connectivity for diverse applications ranging from hobby use to critical disaster response operations.

LoRa, short for "long range," is a wireless communication technology designed to prioritize efficiency by maximizing transmission range while minimizing power consumption. Unlike Wi-Fi, which offers high data throughput but limited range, LoRa transmits small amounts of data over extensive distances—up to 200 miles under ideal conditions, typically 6 miles in reality. Its transfer rates range from 0.3 to 27 kilobits per second, comparable to dial-up internet speeds. The technology operates on unlicensed frequency bands: 865-867MHz in North America and 863-873MHz or 433-434MHz in Europe, requiring no operating license. LoRaWAN defines the protocol and network architecture for LoRa implementation. The technology's low power consumption and long-range capabilities make it ideal for battery-powered smart home sensors and remote data collection applications, such as distant mailbox sensors or weather station monitoring. Mesh-based implementations like Meshtastic and MeshCore extend LoRa's capabilities further, enabling broader network coverage and making it valuable for applications requiring wireless connectivity over substantial distances without high bandwidth demands.

The Meshtastic community has identified significant FCC compliance issues affecting mesh networking in the United States. Most Meshtastic presets operate at 250 kHz bandwidth, violating FCC regulations requiring 900 MHz ISM band devices to use 500 kHz or higher bandwidth. While LongTurbo is the only compliant preset available, extensive testing in the Philadelphia area and other metropolitan regions demonstrates it performs poorly for long-distance mesh communication due to concentrated interference at 250 kHz intervals across the spectrum. The document presents MeshCore 500, a Philadelphia-specific configuration designed for that region, but explicitly warns against national deployment without localized testing using software-defined radios and coordination with amateur radio groups to prevent interference. The authors emphasize this is not legal advice and recommend consulting qualified attorneys regarding FCC compliance questions. They note no realistic prospects for regulatory changes or new mesh bands, leaving the community facing a technical impasse between regulatory compliance and functional performance requirements.

Meck represents a specialized firmware fork developed through artificial intelligence collaboration, combining Meshcore technology with customized functionality for specific hardware platforms. Created entirely using Claude AI and based on Meshcore v1.11 codebase, Meck delivers 100% free, open-source software designed to enable Bluetooth Low Energy and WiFi companion firmware capabilities for three LilyGo devices: the T-Deck Pro, T-Deck Max, and T5 E-Paper S3 Pro. The project, available on GitHub, represents an innovative approach to firmware development through AI-assisted coding, enabling developers to extend device connectivity and functionality across multiple LilyGo platforms. This initiative demonstrates the growing viability of using advanced language models for specialized software development while maintaining complete transparency and accessibility. The availability of free, purpose-built firmware for these e-paper and compact computing devices expands the practical applications and interconnectivity options for developers working with LilyGo's embedded systems ecosystem.

Reticulum Network represents an ambitious alternative to established mesh networking solutions like Meshtastic, offering a transport-agnostic cryptographic networking protocol designed for low-bandwidth, unreliable, and infrastructure-free environments. Unlike Meshtastic's single LoRa-based implementation, Reticulum functions as a flexible protocol layer capable of operating across multiple communication mediums simultaneously, enabling devices like a Raspberry Pi to bridge home networks with LoRa mesh systems. The protocol incorporates several sophisticated features: cryptographic addressing derived from public keys eliminates the need for centralized registries while preventing spoofing, automatic mesh routing builds packet paths without manual configuration, delay-tolerant networking enables store-and-forward messaging for offline destinations, and mandatory end-to-end encryption secures all communications by default. As a protocol rather than a complete application, Reticulum runs on Raspberry Pi hardware through a simple Python package installation, generating cryptographic identities and establishing connections to the public testnet for verification. This architecture matters significantly for decentralized communication infrastructure, offering users enhanced security, flexibility, and resilience in challenging network conditions where traditional internet connectivity is unavailable or unreliable.