Meshtastic let's you select different compromises between throughput and range. The main limitation is that everybody has to agree on the same setting up front

Meshtastic let's you select different compromises between throughput and range. The main limitation is that everybody has to agree on the same setting up front to be able to communicate with each other within a network. The default (and most widely used, including on the de facto public channel) setting is one of the longer range options and gives you around 1 kbps, and it's quite usable on the default for normal texting and positioning telemetry with a handful of active users in my experience. The fastest setting is over 20 kbps and still gets ok range, the slowest is a mere 0.09 kbps and is only useful in some limited scenarios. It's legitimately useful, and I actually use it regularly. Mostly for hiking, as I do a lot of hikes where we split and meet up. It's also far cheaper than commercial options, and getting close to being as polished as the commercial options like Beartooth or GoTenna. https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/radio-settings/ https://meshtastic.org/docs/overview/radio-settings/