Morse Micro, a leading Wi-Fi HaLow silicon vendor, has officially announced a partnership with Zetifi, an innovator in last-mile connectivity for vehicles, machinery, and farms, to enhance latter’s remote-area connectivity solutions with Wi-Fi HaLow technology. In its current shape and form, Zetifi’s innovative technology allows farmers and other rural residents to access, extend, and optimize coverage from existing radio, cellular or satellite networks, This, in turn, goes on to conceive reliable remote area connectivity across areas where phone coverage is otherwise unreliable or unavailable. Furthermore, the technology in question would also address a major barrier to the digitalization of agriculture. It does so through two main products in ZetiCell and ZetiRover. Talk about the given products on a slightly deeper level, ZetiCell brings a long-range Wi-Fi small cell which is to be installed on farmhouses or machinery sheds. As for ZetiRover, it is basically a vehicle-mounted roaming Wi-Fi hotspot used on off-farm passenger vehicles or farm machinery. Making ZetiRover’s value proposition even better is the fact that it can be moved easily between vehicles, as it features fully integrated antennas and dual modems that ensure seamless backhaul connections to multiple cellular and Wi-Fi networks. Such a setup creates a versatile functionality capable of providing redundancy and extra coverage options to fill in more coverage gaps around remote areas. Not just that, it would also enable a Wi-Fi link back to a private ZetiCell, a link which helps ZetiRover repeat Wi-Fi from a cellular or satellite ZetiCell connection up to three kilometers away.
At the moment, ZetiRover currently uses 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to create the vital link between ZetiCell and ZetiRover. Now, this might have proven to be adequate, but it can be disrupted by natural obstacles, such as trees or hilly terrain. Fortunately enough, the new versions of ZetiRover and ZetiCell will incorporate Morse Micro’s long-range, sub-GHz Wi-Fi HaLow technology for direct connections to HaLow-enabled cameras and sensors. On top of that, it will also come in handy when creating more penetrative mesh connections between Zetifi devices.
“The Internet of Things is revolutionizing farming, and now Wi-Fi HaLow – the first version of Wi-Fi optimized for the IoT — is helping Zetifi deliver on the promise of smart, connected farming technology,” said Dan Winson, CEO and founder of Zetifi. “Our collaboration with Morse Micro is a defining moment in Zetifi’s mission to bring digital advancements to modern farming through remote-area connectivity.”
You see, Morse Micro’s technology will ensure that Zetifi, and its ZetiCell and ZetiRover solutions, are able to bank upon the long-range capabilities of Wi-Fi HaLow to give more farmers the means to adopt precision agriculture and remote monitoring. Apart from that, it will also prepare them for the introduction of connectivity-dependent autonomous machinery.
“Zetifi’s wireless technology brings an innovative approach to rural connectivity, and we are proud to join them in the journey to transform smart farming technology with our Wi-Fi HaLow technology,” said Prakash Guda, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Morse Micro. “The collaboration is a crucial step in the evolution of IoT agriculture by extending the wireless range and expanding the coverage of Zetifi’s connectivity solutions for farm equipment operating in remote areas.”
