back to article HaLow, is it me you're hacking for? Wi-Fi standard for IoT emitted

The Wi-Fi Alliance has formally unveiled the 802.11ah Wi-Fi standard, dubbed HaLow, which has been designed for low-power, high-range uses by connected Internet of Things devices. "Wi-Fi HaLow is well suited to meet the unique needs of the Smart Home, Smart City, and industrial markets because of its ability to operate using …

  1. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    No thanks

    If we must have this stuff, I'd prefer a shorter range, not a longer one.

    Snooping neighbours doncha no

    1. Flywheel
      Pirate

      Re: No thanks

      OTOH I could use the extra range for my Pirate Box, assuming the antenna could be small.

  2. This post has been deleted by its author

  3. bigdish

    Crowded house

    There's plenty of other systems out there already aiming to fill this niche - LPWA (low power wide area) systems like weightless, Sigfox, CleanSlate have got a head start on HaLow and LTE-MTC is attacking from the operator end of the market - but even so, with 20 billion IoT devices (or so we're told) expected by 2025 there's more than enough of a market for all of them...

  4. Andrew Jones 2

    900MHz - This seems awfully close to GSM frequencies.......

    1. Mage Silver badge

      GSM

      Yes, the proposed standard would only suit in USA and related countries which has a different bandplan. Europe has a small SRD band at 864MHz approx. USA has a large general band in what is 900MHz GSM. in Europe.

      USA also SRD at about 385 MHz but Europe is 433 MHz (middle of USA & Europe 70cm Amateur band).

      DECT Phones in Europe are 1900MHz. USA is a different band.

      USA FRS and Europe UHF Licence free walkie talkies are also different bands.

      You see illegal stuff all the time. FCC and European regulators are only interested in mobile revenue.

    2. NotBob

      900MHz - I wonder how well that will play with stuff already there in the US (old phones, "smart" meters, possibly some old rc stuff)

  5. John Robson Silver badge

    1km

    Hmm - at what kind of data rates - I could do with this an an option, cheaper than a 3G contract to send a continuous 128kBit stream, and with a 1km range I could find an appropriate friendly fixed line to use...

  6. Paul Johnson 1

    Only for the Americas

    According to Wikipedia the 900MHz band is only for ITU Region 2, which means the Americas. Region 1 (Eurasia and Africa) have a 433MHz band, but the bandwidth available is only 1.74Mhz instead of 26, so many 900MHz applications aren't going to get the bandwidth they need there.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISM_band

  7. Bluto Nash
    Facepalm

    Sorry, AT&T, I don't want my goddamn light bulbs (if I used IoT) to need a mobile plan.

  8. Paul J Turner

    Poor use for the band

    It would be much better used for the emergency services with the extra range and superior wall penetration. I think this has been mentioned in other stories earlier this year.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Poor use for the band

      The stories were about changing emergency comms standards, not frequencies (which are already allocated by law and IINM are around the 800MHz range, which combined with better antennae provide plenty of range).

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