South Wairarapa’s elected members will hear submitters put forward a case for rural wards this week. Read...

How far can your home Wi-Fi network reach? Out in the boonies I can get a signal for perhaps 30 feet outside my small house. But in packed urban apartments I’ve seen it drop off completely just a couple of rooms away, hence the demand for mesh networks. But one company has managed to get a Wi-Fi network to stretch for almost 10 miles. If you’re waiting for the catch, here it is. Morse Micro’s impressive setup uses the 802.11ah standard, also known as HaLow, using low-frequency radio bands to get extremely long range. So this is technically compatible with at least some hardware you can buy today…though Morse Micro’s system uses tons of proprietary tech to boost it even further. Their access point system has already been tested in a conventional setting, achieving a stable video connection over 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers) in San Francisco according to Tom’s Hardware. Which is undeniably cool. But a crowded metropolis swimming in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mobile connections every few feet isn’t going to show you the maximum potential of your hardware. For that, Morse Micro’s engineers drove out to Joshua Tree National Park in the California desert. They set up one access point at the north end of the valley and started driving, stopping just before the system’s theoretical maximum range based on their electrical and physics data. With no buildings or major electronics in the area and a line-of-sight (technically) to the access point, the setup was as ideal as you can get without launching into orbit. The HaLow connection managed to get through at 9.9 miles, 15.9 kilometers. Which is pretty darn impressive on its own. But the connection also managed to stay stable at two megabits per second. That’s not enough for a 4K Minecraft stream, but it should be more than enough to check your email or get a VOIP call. The setup is a world record for a stable Wi-Fi connection. And if it seems a little ridiculous in a world where you can get LTE almost everywhere, then you’ve never tried to share a single expensive rural internet connection with your grandma’s house a quarter mile away. Morse Micro says it could be useful for peer-to-peer connections more or less anywhere, or long-range internet setups for farming, mining, or even resorts. Think of anything that covers a lot of acreage without ubiquitous internet access. Read...

The Parihaka papakainga, a village on ancestral Maori land, is located on the rural coast of Taranaki and is home to three marae and about 30 dwellings. Read...

A rural home that has been the subject of a public search for missing woman Breanna Muriwai has been burnt to the ground in a “deliberately lit” blaze. Read...

New Zealand Police’s latest tactical options report paints a clear picture of how policing differs in more rural areas versus urban centres. Read...

Recreational aircraft owners in the Timaru and Mackenzie districts are facing headwinds over rules that could ground operations at rural airstrips. Read...

A Mid Canterbury man is concerned with the safety of his shingle road after the `shambles” with its maintenance. Read...

Scarecrows are popping up in rural Timaru as a popular biennial competition takes place to coincide with the Barton Rural School fair. Read...

Mark Cameron has made an impassioned plea to Parliament, urging more assistance for rural communities, following the death of his 22-year-old son. Read...

ACT MP Mark Cameron made an impassioned plea to Parliament, urging more assistance for rural communities, following the death of his son. Read...