Macnman offers MacTalk, a free IoT technology planning tool designed to help organizations select the optimal wireless technology for their deployment. The tool evaluates five connectivity options—LoRaWAN, Wi-Fi, cellular, NB-IoT, and MacTalk—scoring them across seven weighted dimensions including coverage fit, battery life, scalability, five-year cost, data capacity, control latency, and network independence. In a balanced weighting scenario, LoRaWAN emerged as the recommended choice, scoring 91 out of 100, substantially ahead of LTE-M at 59. The analysis highlights the fundamental economic trade-off: cellular and NB-IoT require ongoing per-device subscription fees, while private LoRaWAN requires upfront gateway infrastructure investment. The crossover point typically occurs at fewer than one hundred devices, making LoRaWAN advantageous for larger fleets. The tool employs hard gates to eliminate unsuitable technologies based on physical constraints before scoring occurs, ensuring recommendations reflect genuine feasibility rather than compromised rankings.

BLE mesh, Thread, and Matter represent three distinct layers of the connected-device stack rather than competing alternatives. BLE mesh and Thread function as network technologies that transport data between devices, while Matter operates as an application-layer interoperability standard enabling cross-brand device communication. BLE mesh floods messages across Bluetooth Low Energy networks commonly used in smart lighting and building control, whereas Thread creates an IPv6 mesh over dedicated 802.15.4 radios optimized for low-power home devices and sensors. Matter runs atop existing networks like Thread, WiFi, or Ethernet, standardizing device types and commissioning protocols to ensure seamless interoperability across manufacturers. The critical distinction lies in their operational levels: BLE mesh and Thread move data between devices through different routing mechanisms, while Matter defines how devices from different brands understand one another. Notably, phones lack the 802.15.4 radios required for Thread and rarely support the Bluetooth Mesh profile, though they can serve as controllers or border routers. This layered architecture clarifies that these technologies serve complementary rather than interchangeable functions, each addressing specific requirements within the smart-home ecosystem.

Lora Italia operates a decentralized mesh network across Italy using LoRa technology on the 868 MHz band, built on Meshtastic firmware and active since 2020. This guide provides practical instructions for joining the network, requiring only affordable pre-assembled devices costing €15-30 built around ESP32 or nRF52 microcontrollers with integrated LoRa radios. Critical to the process is selecting EU 868 MHz variants, as US 915 MHz versions are incompatible with European frequencies. Users flash devices using the browser-based Meshtastic Web Flasher without requiring soldering skills, then configure settings through official apps via Bluetooth or USB. Essential configuration steps include setting the region to EU_868, applying community channel parameters, and enabling position sharing. Once activated, nodes automatically appear on the public Lora Italia map, confirming successful network integration. The community remains active on dedicated channels for coordination. This accessible approach enables anyone to participate in a grassroots mesh network infrastructure without managing physical infrastructure or possessing technical expertise.

Building Digital UK (BDUK) commissioned Belmana and GC Insight to evaluate the economic impact of its Hub intervention, which connected remote public buildings including schools, surgeries, and libraries to gigabit-capable broadband through the Rural Gigabit Connectivity Programme and Project Gigabit. The evaluation focused specifically on Library Hubs and identified several critical findings. Operational benefits emerged as the most immediate and measurable outcomes, with qualitative evidence demonstrating time savings, improved service continuity, and efficiency gains. The study revealed that enhanced connectivity functions as a critical enabler for expanded library services, including digital public service access, digital inclusion support, and employment-related activities. However, service-level impacts proved conditional on complementary factors such as staff capacity, volunteer support, and structured digital inclusion programmes. Libraries demonstrated significant value as access points for digital public services, reducing barriers to online transactions and potentially decreasing pressure on alternative service channels. The intervention expanded libraries' economic participation role by enabling job searching, remote working access, and online opportunities for those lacking home connectivity. Community-level impacts, including health navigation support and partnership-based service delivery, were identified as broader yet more diffuse benefits.

MeshCore is a lightweight, portable C++ library enabling multi-hop packet routing for embedded systems using LoRa and other packet radios. Designed for developers building resilient, decentralized communication networks independent of internet infrastructure, MeshCore supports multiple LoRa devices with simplified deployment through pre-built binaries that can be flashed using tools like Adafruit ESPTool. The platform positions itself distinctly between alternatives like Meshtastic and Reticulum, offering a balanced approach that prioritizes lightweight multi-hop routing for custom embedded solutions while maintaining scalability. Key capabilities include wireless mesh networking where devices relay messages across long distances through intermediate nodes, practical for off-grid, emergency, and tactical scenarios lacking traditional infrastructure. MeshCore provides multiple interaction modes including serial console access, a Simple Secure Chat example compatible with Visual Studio Code and Android terminals, and companion firmware supporting BLE, USB, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Advanced features include repeater and room server firmware configurable via USB web tools or remote LoRa management. Released as open-source under the MIT License, MeshCore welcomes community contributions through pull requests on the development branch, with architectural changes requiring prior discussion. This solution addresses critical needs for reliable, decentralized communication in resource-constrained and disconnected environments.

If you're living in a rural area, you may have less access to high-speed internet service than those living in urban areas. Unfortunately, this can make it difficult to stay connected and access the resources you need. However, there are a few things you can do to improve your situation. In this article, we'll tell you how to get internet in rural areas.

A maker successfully demonstrated off-grid messaging by constructing a MeshCore LoRa mesh network using two affordable Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 boards, with a repeater unit placed in his loft. LoRa (Long Range) technology enables text-only communication across significant distances by sacrificing speed and bandwidth—functioning like slowly shouting one word at a time across a valley rather than having a fast conversation. Unlike Meshtastic, the more established alternative, MeshCore employs an intelligent routing system where the initial message floods across the entire network, and once delivered, subsequent replies establish and memorize the optimal route back, eliminating inefficient broadcasting. The builder achieved message delivery without cellular signal, WiFi, or a SIM card, proving the viability of infrastructure-independent communication. This development matters significantly for emergency communications, remote area connectivity, and disaster response scenarios where conventional networks are unavailable or compromised. The low cost of implementation and minimal power requirements make mesh networking accessible to makers and organizations seeking resilient communication alternatives.

Mesh networks represent a fundamental shift in digital infrastructure ownership and governance, moving from corporate control toward community-managed systems. This transformation gained momentum following Superstorm Sandy in 2012, when a community mesh network in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighbourhood maintained connectivity while centralized internet infrastructure failed across the city. By 2026, mesh networks have evolved from technical experimentation to central policy debates, with governments, municipalities, and civil society organizations reconsidering whether the internet should function as a commons governed by communities or remain a commodity controlled by vertically integrated corporations. Unlike the conventional hub-and-spoke internet architecture—efficient but vulnerable to single points of failure—mesh networks distribute data across multiple nodes, allowing traffic to reroute around failures and gracefully degrade rather than collapse entirely. Every node functions simultaneously as sender, receiver, and relay, creating resilience through redundancy. This architectural difference is being realized through rooftop antennas, solar-powered nodes, and open-source firmware deployed by communities unwilling to await regulatory permission. Mesh networks matter because they address critical infrastructure vulnerabilities while democratizing digital access and governance.

This chapter from The Agricultural Technology Report examines the pivotal role of sensing technologies, Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, and advanced connectivity solutions in transforming modern agriculture. The report, which has garnered over 24,000 subscribers, explores how real-time data collection through distributed sensor networks enables farmers to monitor soil conditions, weather patterns, crop health, and livestock welfare with unprecedented precision. Advanced connectivity systems—including 5G, satellite communications, and specialized agricultural networks—facilitate seamless data transmission from remote field locations to cloud-based analytics platforms. These integrated technologies empower agricultural decision-making by providing actionable insights that optimize resource allocation, reduce waste, and enhance yield predictions. The chapter contextualizes these innovations within the broader Agricultural Technology Report framework, which spans five comprehensive chapters addressing the sector's technological evolution. By connecting IoT devices and sensing infrastructure, farmers can implement data-driven strategies that improve operational efficiency and sustainability, making this technological convergence essential for addressing food security challenges in an increasingly digitized agricultural landscape.

Long-range modems enable reliable, low-power wireless connectivity across kilometers for remote industrial, agricultural, and off-grid applications—fundamentally different from consumer Wi-Fi routers. Unlike traditional home networking, these devices prioritize link budget, energy efficiency, and protocol resilience over speed, transmitting minimal data asynchronously over licensed or unlicensed spectrum. The market has shifted dramatically toward hybrid satellite-plus-LTE/NB-IoT modems following 3GPP Release 17 standardization and government infrastructure investments in India and China. For most deployments, LoRa or NB-IoT modems delivering 8-kilometer-plus outdoor range address over 90 percent of rural and industrial use cases at under $50 per unit. Success depends on evaluating five measurable performance attributes rather than range alone: link budget, interference resilience, power consumption, protocol overhead, and real-world throughput. Current market pricing reveals distinct tiers, with NB-IoT modules starting around $22. The strongest competitive advantage in 2026 centers on interoperability and lifecycle simplicity rather than raw specifications, making pre-provisioned cellular solutions increasingly attractive for pilot deployments seeking faster time-to-value.

OSHI is a privacy-focused messenger application available on the Apple App Store that enables users to communicate offline through Bluetooth and Wi-Fi mesh networks without requiring internet connectivity, SIM cards, or phone numbers. The app employs end-to-end encryption using X3DH and Double Ratchet protocols to secure one-to-one messages and calls, with encryption keys remaining exclusively on users' devices. OSHI features an on-device AI assistant that processes requests locally without transmitting data to external servers, alongside standard messaging capabilities including group chats, voice notes, file sharing, and self-destructing media. The offline mesh network reaches approximately 100 meters in open spaces but significantly less through walls, extending further when multiple users nearby have the app active to relay messages. The application automatically switches to internet transmission when no users are in range. OSHI addresses real-world communication needs during festivals, flights, travel, and network outages. Recent security updates, identified by independent researcher Turáni Gergely, fixed vulnerabilities related to encrypted conversation integrity and bot history storage, improving both reliability and device security.

Colorado Mesh is a community-driven initiative establishing a decentralized, resilient wireless mesh network across Colorado as an alternative to traditional internet service providers. The project operates through a GitHub repository serving as the central hub for software development, documentation, and hardware configurations. The initiative has developed several key technical components, including a cross-platform Electron desktop client compatible with Meshtastic, MeshCore, and Reticulum protocols, supporting macOS, Linux, and Windows with multi-language capabilities, Bluetooth Low Energy, USB serial, Wi-Fi/TCP, and MQTT connectivity alongside local SQLite history and routing diagnostics. Additional tools include a self-hosted MeshCore observer coverage application that generates test codes, monitors MQTT receipts, and scores message reachability performance, along with specialized MeshCore observer firmware. The network addresses critical communication needs during emergencies by providing community-owned infrastructure independent of commercial providers. Colorado Mesh actively welcomes developer contributions and community participation, positioning itself as an accessible initiative for experienced developers, networking enthusiasts, and those seeking reliable, resilient communication solutions.

Last week, at Qualcomm’s headquarters in San Diego, VP of Engineering Hemanth Sampath told a room of press and analysts that 50 GB a month is modest. He said a single personal AI assistant could consume around 45 GB a month, with half of it on the uplink; that a current 5G cell would support roughly five such users; and that 6G would raise that to twenty-plus. Durga Malladi, who runs technology planning and edge solutions, warned that if 6G ends up being just a more efficient bit pipe, then, in his words, “we have failed.” I agree with Malladi on the failure, but strongly disagree with using the road to get there.

This paper provides an overview of the Internet of Things (IoT) with emphasis on enabling technologies, protocols, and application issues. The IoT is enabled by the latest developments in RFID, smart sensors, communication technologies, and Internet protocols. The basic premise is to have smart sensors collaborate directly without human involvement to deliver a new class of applications. The current revolution in Internet, mobile, and machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies can be seen as the first phase of the IoT. In the coming years, the IoT is expected to bridge diverse technologies to enable new applications by connecting physical objects together in support of intelligent decision making. This paper starts by providing a horizontal overview of the IoT. Then, we give an overview of some technical details that pertain to the IoT enabling technologies, protocols, and applications. Compared to other survey papers in the field, our objective is to provide a more thorough summary of the most relevant protocols and application issues to enable researchers and application developers to get up to speed quickly on how the different protocols fit together to deliver desired functionalities without having to go through RFCs and the standards specifications. We also provide an overview of some of the key IoT challenges presented in the recent literature and provide a summary of related research work. Moreover, we explore the relation between the IoT and other emerging technologies including big data analytics and cloud and fog computing. We also present the need for better horizontal integration among IoT services. Finally, we present detailed service use-cases to illustrate how the different protocols presented in the paper fit together to deliver desired IoT services.

Mesh networking represents a peer-to-peer topology where devices relay traffic directly to one another, eliminating dependence on centralized infrastructure like cell towers or routers. DORS, an offline mesh networking protocol, exemplifies this approach with a production deployment spanning 350,000+ devices across 80+ countries operating over Bluetooth LE and WiFi Direct. Unlike conventional networks vulnerable to infrastructure failure or saturation, mesh networks are self-healing and infrastructure-independent, making them invaluable in disaster zones, underground environments, and areas under deliberate shutdown. DORS implements sophisticated routing capabilities, supporting messages relayed across up to eight hops with built-in acknowledgment, retry, and deduplication mechanisms. The protocol employs MLS encryption with Ed25519 identities, allowing relay nodes to forward ciphertext without accessing encryption keys. Load balancing automatically shifts relay duties toward well-charged devices while reducing load on energy-constrained ones. DORS accommodates multiple transports—BLE, WiFi Direct, internet, Reticulum, and Nostr—behind a unified API, scoring and routing messages through the optimal available path per transmission. The system supports chunked file transfers up to 100MB with per-chunk acknowledgment and resume capability. This technology demonstrates that robust, decentralized connectivity can scale organically without centralized infrastructure coordination.

LoRa pagers are programmable, offline-capable messaging devices utilizing long-range, low-power LoRa radio technology, designed for users requiring text-based communication without cellular or internet connectivity. Modern implementations, such as the LILYGO T-LoRa Pager, run open-source firmware like Meshtastic and support GPS, NFC, and mesh networking across license-free ISM bands (868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the US). Unlike legacy pagers reliant on centralized broadcast infrastructure, LoRa pagers transmit short text messages, typically under 240 bytes, using the LoRa physical layer in a decentralized, user-managed manner. These devices appeal to hikers, preppers, amateur radio enthusiasts, and IoT developers seeking reliable off-grid communication during travel or emergencies. At their core, LoRa pagers utilize the SX1262 chip, supporting spreading factors SF7–SF12 and output power up to +22 dBm, delivering predictable, energy-efficient, low-bandwidth messaging independent of infrastructure. Their significance lies not in speed or app integration but in providing dependable, infrastructure-agnostic text delivery for specialized use cases where traditional communication networks are unavailable or unreliable.

This instructional article introduces MeshCore, a free open-source mesh networking system designed for budget-conscious makers. The course enables users to build a functional encrypted messaging network using affordable LoRa radios for approximately £30. Participants will construct a two-node mesh utilizing Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 V3 boards, each costing around £15, with differentiation achieved through firmware flashing and configuration rather than hardware changes. The system operates independently without requiring mobile signal, WiFi, internet connectivity, or subscription fees, allowing text communication across three-mile distances. The course structure delivers progressive lessons covering both hardware and software competencies, with each module introducing singular concepts followed by practical application. Command-line instructions are presented in code format, with user-specific variables indicated in angle brackets. The curriculum includes troubleshooting sections addressing common implementation challenges, emphasizing that diagnostic content provides essential learning value beyond basic setup instructions.

For most of the software era, the client was a stable application. A company built it, registered it, gave it credentials, connected it to an API, and kept that integration running for months or years. Authentication, billing, quotas, versioning, documentation, and support were all designed around software that stayed around. AI agents work differently. A persistent agent can take one objective and create thousands of smaller agents to work on different parts of it at the same time. One may search suppliers while another reads contracts; others compare prices, analyze documents, test scenarios, or verify results. Kimi Moonshot already runs swarms with up to 300 concurrent subagents, more than 4,000 tool calls in a single task, and reports execution up to 4.5 times faster than sequential execution.

If orbital D2D is really going to move the needle for AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile, it eventually needs to do something much more important with their networks. It needs to carry enough real traffic that the carrier can avoid building, upgrading, or maintaining some terrestrial infrastructure. Otherwise, what exactly is the capex benefit? AST already says this openly, as its pitch to mobile operators is that they can extend coverage into places where terrestrial economics do not work without building additional towers or other land-based infrastructure. SpaceX is pursuing a different commercial model, but the infrastructure logic is the same. If meaningful rural and semi-rural traffic moves into orbit, some radios on the ground should eventually become unnecessary.

Telco security teams are used to ridiculous cyber numbers. For example, in the first six months of 2026, Cloudflare blocked 23.2 million network DDoS attacks across its infrastructure. That is about 128,000 attacks every day, or more than 5,300 every hour. It also recorded 935 attacks above one terabit per second during the same period. The volume is so high, and many attacks are so short, that human response became unrealistic years ago.