The last mile has traditionally been the most difficult part of telecoms to solve. Despite fibre being laid across continents and satellites relaying signal around the globe, the same bottleneck continues to happen every time at the end of the chain.
That final stretch to a home, small business or a property further back from a main road is where the costs start to climb and it’s where you see the economics of infrastructure rollout start to falter.
The picture is beginning to look a bit different now with mesh networking. Instead of relying on one provider to run cables to every doorstep, mesh networks let devices communicate with each other. Data gets passed from node to node until it reaches its final destination and when one node fails, the system simply reroutes.
Mesh supports informal settlements and rural areas beyond the reach of fibre alongside apartment blocks where cabling is either costly or impractical – but without the upfront capital expenditure required by traditional rollouts. With more operators and community networks using mesh as part of their long-term connectivity strategy, it’s safe to say that the technology has moved well past its experimental stage.
Our Experts
- Tristan Wood: Founder & CEO of Livewire Digital
- Osama Asgher: Founder of Simplify Networks
- James Sheridan: CEO of Sheridan Technologies
- Mike Hellers: Product Development Manager at the London Internet Exchange
Tristan Wood, Founder & CEO of Livewire Digital
“The biggest change mesh networking brings to the last mile is that a connection no longer has to depend on a single path. In a traditional hub-and-spoke network, losing the hub or the link to it can take an entire site offline. In a mesh, nodes can relay traffic for one another, so when one route fails, another can often take over. This makes it easier to reach places where fixed infrastructure cannot be assumed, from rural communities to emergency response sites and vehicles on the move.
The other half of the problem is how traffic leaves the mesh. In many deployments it still converges on a small number of gateways, and if those gateways rely on a single backhaul connection, a fibre cut or a congested cell can take out every user at once.
That is why we see huge potential in bonded mesh, where traffic can move between nodes and be carried across cellular, satellite and fixed-line links at the same time. If one connection drops, sessions continue over the others. For mission-critical uses such as emergency services, drones flying beyond visual line of sight and vessels at sea, that resilience on the route out is what turns mesh from a coverage fix into infrastructure people can depend on.”
Osama Asgher, Founder of Simplify Networks
“The last mile used to be about broadband speed. Now it’s about whether a business can make a phone call. With the UK’s copper landline network switching off on 31 January 2027, every business phone line is moving onto the internet connection, so a weak last mile no longer means a slow web page. It means a dropped call with a customer.
That’s where mesh helps. Each node can route around a failure, so a mesh network keeps traffic moving when one link drops, and it reaches corners of a building, a site or a rural area that a single router never covered well. For small businesses, that resilience matters more than headline speed.
The catch is that voice is unforgiving. Every extra hop adds a little delay, so mesh networks carrying calls need sensible design and quality-of-service settings that put voice first. Done properly, mesh turns the last mile from a single point of failure into something a business can rely on.”
James Sheridan, CEO of Sheridan Technologies
“Mesh networking changes the economics of the last mile because nearby nodes can relay traffic instead of every location needing a dedicated wired connection. That can help communities extend coverage across buildings, rural areas or places where trenching fiber is too expensive.
It also opens the door to more locally owned, decentralised networks. Instead of depending on one provider’s layout, communities can add nodes and share connectivity, although internet access still needs an upstream connection somewhere.
I think LoRa and LoRaWAN are worth mentioning here, especially for connecting sensors, infrastructure, and equipment over long distances with very little power. There’s an important distinction, though: LoRa can be used for mesh messaging, as projects like Meshtastic demonstrate, while standard LoRaWAN is gateway-based rather than a true mesh. Neither is a replacement for broadband; their low data rates make them better suited to small messages and telemetry than streaming or general internet use.
The practical opportunity is combining technologies. Fibre or fixed wireless can provide backhaul, higher-bandwidth mesh links can extend local connectivity, and LoRa based networks can reach low-power devices farther out. Resilience still depends on actual redundant paths, interference management, power, and maintenance, not just calling something a mesh.”
Mike Hellers, Product Development Manager at the London Internet Exchange
“Mesh networking is one approach to internet connectivity that is being used in some areas to help extend coverage and improve resilience. Rather than relying on a single connection, mesh networks allow multiple points to work together to share internet access, helping to improve coverage and reduce disruption if one connection fails.
This can be particularly valuable in locations where installing traditional internet infrastructure may be difficult, expensive or disruptive. However, improving connectivity at a local level is only one part of the picture. These networks still depend on strong, reliable internet infrastructure behind the scenes, which is where Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) have an important role to play.
IXPs allow different networks to exchange internet traffic directly, helping information travel more efficiently and reducing unnecessary delays. As communities and providers continue to explore different ways to improve connectivity, ensuring the wider internet infrastructure can support growing demand will remain increasingly important.
Mesh networking isn’t a replacement for existing infrastructure, but it can complement it in certain circumstances. By combining local connectivity solutions with continued investment in wider internet infrastructure, we can help deliver faster, more reliable internet access to more people.”
