Point-to-point wireless bridges in 2026: the new kit linking outbuildings to Starlink and Amazon Leo
A satellite dish brings the internet to one building. The trouble starts when the person who needs it most is somewhere else: in the garden office, the workshop, the stables, the holiday let or the farm shop at the end of the yard. Trenching a cable is disruptive, and Wi-Fi pushed through two exterior walls rarely works well. That is the job a point-to-point wireless bridge was made for.
2026 has been a busy year for this kind of kit. Several manufacturers have launched new bridges, some using Wi-Fi 7 and the 6GHz band, others using 60GHz with automatic backup. In this post we look at what is new, how the technologies differ and what it means in practice for UK homes and businesses on Starlink or getting ready for Amazon Leo.
What a point-to-point bridge actually does
A wireless bridge is a pair of small outdoor radios, one fixed to the building where the internet arrives and one on the building that needs it. They are aimed at each other and create a private, invisible Ethernet cable between the two. At the far end you plug in a switch, an access point or a camera exactly as if a cable had been run across the ground.
Focused antennas let a bridge cover hundreds of metres or even kilometres where ordinary Wi-Fi gives up after a few tens of metres. Most are powered over the same Ethernet cable that carries the data, using Power over Ethernet (PoE), so each end needs only one cable.
The new kit launched in 2026
TP-Link's Omada range has had the busiest year. The Omada Beam Bridge 7 KIT, first shown at a trade show in March and detailed in a datasheet published in August, is the range's first dual-band bridge to use Wi-Fi 7 with Multi-Link Operation across the 5GHz and 6GHz bands. It arrives as a preconfigured pair that pairs automatically, with a 2.5G Ethernet port, a 10G SFP+ port, IP68 weatherproofing and 6kV lightning protection. TP-Link quotes a transmission distance of 3km, and says its own field testing reached more than 3.5Gbps in both directions at 1km using 5GHz and 6GHz together, and more than 1.4Gbps on 5GHz alone. Those are manufacturer figures rather than independent tests.
TP-Link also launched the Omada Flex Bridge 5 in July. It is a 5GHz bridge rated at 867Mbps over up to 5km, with three Gigabit ports, two of which can power devices such as CCTV cameras over PoE. It can also run from a 12V DC supply, which opens the door to solar-powered sites.
MikroTik announced a second-generation nRAY in March. It uses 60GHz 802.11ad as its main link with Wi-Fi 6 on 5GHz as a fallback, and MikroTik claims gigabit speeds at distances of up to 10km. MikroTik's smaller Cube 60Pro ac uses 60GHz 802.11ay with automatic failover to 5GHz, and is rated for 1km.
Ubiquiti has focused on making its UniFi Building Bridge easier to live with. Since January single units have been available, so a damaged radio can be replaced on its own rather than buying a new pair, and a May firmware update improved how the 60GHz link picks its frequency. Ubiquiti rates the Building Bridge for up to 500m with clear line of sight and recommends 200m to 300m for best results, with 5GHz backup when 60GHz struggles.
5GHz, 6GHz or 60GHz: which suits your property?
The biggest choice is the frequency band, because each one behaves differently outdoors.
5GHz is the all-rounder. It covers long distances, copes reasonably with light foliage at the edges of the path and is widely supported. The downside is that it is busy, so neighbouring links and Wi-Fi can share the airwaves.
60GHz is the short-hop specialist. It carries very high capacity with little interference because the beam is extremely narrow. The catch is that heavy rain can weaken the signal, which is why the better 60GHz products now fall back to 5GHz automatically rather than dropping the link.
6GHz is the newcomer. It offers lots of clean spectrum, but higher-power outdoor use depends on Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC), a database system that checks which channels are safe to use at a given location. Ofcom has decided to allow this in the UK, began inviting applications from AFC service providers from 1 September 2026 and plans to make the regulations this autumn. Until that is in place, treat 6GHz outdoor performance in the UK as something to check before you buy, and confirm what any specific model is approved for here.
For a garden office 40m from the house, a 60GHz link with 5GHz backup is hard to beat. For a barn on the far side of a field or a building several hundred metres away, a 5GHz bridge is usually the more forgiving choice. Satellite broadband speeds are well within what any of these bridges can carry, so the decision is really about distance and obstacles.
Line of sight decides everything
Every bridge on the market depends on a clear path between the two radios. Manufacturers' distance figures assume an unobstructed view, and the real world rarely provides one. These are the points we check on every survey:
Trees and hedges. A path that is clear in winter can disappear behind leaves in summer, so we plan for the fullest canopy, not the day of the visit.
Height. Raising the radios a few metres on a gable bracket or pole often clears hedges, vehicles and livestock that would otherwise cut the link.
Mounting. A bridge needs a rigid fixing. A radio that moves in the wind loses alignment, especially at 60GHz where the beam is very narrow.
Cable runs and power. Each end needs a weatherproof outdoor-rated Ethernet cable and a PoE supply, routed neatly and sealed where it enters the building.
Lightning and earthing. Exposed outdoor radios and long cable runs should be properly earthed and protected, even when the radio itself has built-in surge protection.
What it means for Starlink and Amazon Leo users
For satellite broadband, a bridge solves two common problems. The first is getting the connection to a second building. The dish goes wherever it has the clearest view of the sky, the router sits in the main building, and the bridge carries the connection to the outbuilding, where a Wi-Fi access point or switch takes over.
The second is siting the dish itself. Sometimes the best spot for a clear view of the sky is a workshop roof or a pole at the edge of a yard, well away from the building where the router and users are. A bridge can link the two without long cable runs across open ground.
Bridges also make it practical to add CCTV, gate cameras and smart sensors to outbuildings, especially with models that can power a camera from the bridge itself. The same approach will apply when Amazon Leo becomes available in the UK, since a bridge simply carries whatever connection is fed into it.
Should you choose a bridge or a cable?
If a trench is easy, short and already planned, a buried armoured cable or fibre run is the most robust option and never needs re-aligning. Where the ground is a driveway, a lawn you would rather not dig up, a road, a stream or simply too far, a well-installed bridge is faster, cheaper and far less disruptive, and the 2026 hardware is more capable than anything that came before it.
Professional installation by Space Internet Solutions
Space Internet Solutions installs Starlink and gets homes and businesses ready for Amazon Leo, with point-to-point wireless bridges, outdoor cabling, PoE access points and whole-property Wi-Fi planned in from the start. Through our PLEO (Professional Low Earth Orbit) network of installers we cover the whole of the UK, so the dish, the bridge and the Wi-Fi are surveyed, aligned and tested as one system rather than treated as separate jobs.
Whether you need a garden office online, a barn linked to the farmhouse or a satellite connection shared across several buildings, find a professional installer nationwide at spaceinternetsolutions.com.
Sources: TP-Link Omada Beam Bridge 7 KIT datasheet and product information, TP-Link Omada Flex Bridge 5 launch announcement, MikroTik product pages, Ubiquiti release notes and HostiFi, Cambium Networks and Ofcom's statement on automated frequency coordination in the 6GHz band.
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