Italian amateur radio enthusiasts have teamed up with a Wi-Fi broadband equipment manufacturer to establish a new world record for 5GHz Wi-Fi broadband link.

Ubiquiti Networks and the Italian Centre for Radio Activities' (CISAR) link transmitted data at a rate of around 5Mbps between Sardinia and central Italy - a distance of 304km.

The team used Ubiquiti's ExtremeRange5 Carrier Class 802.11a radio modules on either end, teamed with 35dBi 5GZh parabolic dish antennas.

The development is the first step towards setting up "a wide-band digital network, to connect all Italian ham radio users to each other, and to other services (Echolink, ATV, and D-STAR, for example) provided by our associations," CISAR chairman Marco Paesante claims.

He added: "After successfully interconnecting the whole Italian country with analogue FM repeaters, we would like to realise a new wide-band digital network to connect all Italian ham radio users to each other and to other services such as Echolink, ATV and Dstar."

Use our broadband speed test to find out the speed of your connection and compare potentially faster packages.