According to a 2019 poll conducted by Pew, one in 10 Americans doesn’t have home internet access. Given the new paradigm of working and learning from home, this puts a portion of our population at a distinct disadvantage, commonly referred to as the “digital divide”. Cities, communities and school districts are searching for a solution to bridge this gap and an innovative Chicago based startup has emerged to help.
Mesh++ provides hardware and software that can cover entire cities with wifi without the need to run power or ethernet cables. From a single backhaul point, Mesh++ can blanket entire cities with wifi using their ruggedized hardware that needs only access to sunlight for power. Best of all, the network is self-healing and can be set up by virtually anyone that can follow simple instructions provided by the app.
Founder Danny Gardner has been in and around the antennae space for the last 7 years. He’s hired a strong team of industry veterans from Open-Mesh (acquired by Datto), Ubiquiti, Motorola, and others to provide new and more accessible connectivity solutions to the world. They’ve built an impressive patent portfolio covering the novel aspects of their solution. Most recently the team has been focused on helping underserved communities who are struggling due to the pandemic.
Per the CEO… “When COVID-19 first hit, we knew we had to help. So many people across the country, now working from home, have inadequate connectivity. Multiple new US bills carrying billions in funding for broadband access have been pushed through congress like never before, to be distributed as soon as Q4 2020. In the meantime, we loaned 50 Mesh++ nodes for 6-month to Mayor Lightfoot of Chicago, Mayor Suarez of Miami, and Mayor Cantrell of New Orleans for use in underserved communities. These three cities have been incredibly grateful and helpful in pushing through the approval process to get nodes up in all three cities in a matter of months. Mesh++ nodes are being installed in schools, parks, and affordable housing communities. Mesh++ was the only access solution that Mayor Lightfoot mentioned in the days following the announcement of a $50M fund for connectivity in partnership with the Obama Foundation.”
Internationally, Mesh ++ provides internet access to over 250 acres of land in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The final installation will bring the internet to all outdoor areas of a city of 2 million people. It is scheduled for completion in mid-2022, and the company is in discussion with several emerging international cities for similar contracts.
For those of you wondering if Elon will make Mesh ++ obsolete with Starlink, the answer is no. When Elon introduces Starlink, which supports 670 high-speed connections per satellite, Mesh++ will be able to extend each satellite terminal’s single connection to entire communities anywhere in the world. The satellites still require ground transceivers to transmit signals to, and getting from that point to homes/devices is what’s commonly referred to as the ‘last mile problem’. Mesh ++ has the ability to solve this by significantly increasing the radius that each transceiver can cover with minimal additional infrastructure costs. I’m incredibly excited to work with the team and help them realize their goal of providing affordable internet access to the world.