The Ubiquiti LiteBeam Wireless Bridge Looks like Fun!

Occasionally something crosses my path that looks like a fun toy. I find myself wishing I had a project to justify the purchase. Such is the case with the Ubiquiti LBE-5AC-GEN2-US LiteBeam Wireless Bridge.

A pair of these devices form a long-range wireless bridge operating in unlicensed spectrum. It fits right in with our existing Unifi Cloud Key and AC Pro Wi-Fi APs. Best of all, at under $70 per end, it’s really affordable.

Ideally, I’d use a pair of these radios to gain access to the Tachus fiber internet service that runs up Harvard Ave. That’s 1.43 miles (2.29 km) due west of our home. The Ubiquiti setup tool shows that we could achieve 250 Mbps over that link.

To make this happen, I need to make a deal with someone who lives along the fiber route, to use their home as the location to get fiber service. I’d mount the far end of the wireless bridge there. The other at our home. I’d happily share the fiber service with them. To date, I’ve not found someone willing to make that bargain.

I’ve been told that other Wi-Fi along the path between the bridge ends would impact it’s performance. It’s further been suggested that a 60 GHz bridge would be preferable to avoid RF congestion in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Ubiquiti has such a bridge in beta test right now.

It would be such a fun project.