LinkedIn·Thursday, 13 August 2026·13d ago

They came to us for help with something that sounded almost impossible: crossing America in a car powered by nothing but the sun. This year…

Venn Telecom

5,128 followers

They came to us for help with something that sounded almost impossible: crossing America in a car powered by nothing but the sun. This year a team of Belgian students got in touch. Their goal was to become the first European team ever to win the American Solar Challenge. Here's what they needed from us: a connection that never dropped. Standard mobile networks wouldn't be enough. They needed to be connected all along Route 66 from Minneapolis to Amarillo, across remote and demanding terrain. Every second matters: the team needs to monitor the vehicle data in real time to make the best decisions on the road. Data must travel from the car to their accompanying convoy, and on to their engineering HQ in Belgium, and then back again. All at high speeds and without interruption. It sounded very challenging. So of course we said yes. Inside a small and mobile white box we combined a Starlink Mini, for satellite bandwidth, with a Peplink BR1 Pro 5G to capture local cellular networks. Using patented SpeedFusion technology, both paths are bonded into a single connection: if one slows, the other picks up the load. The result is a link that never breaks, even in the middle of nowhere. And accross every kilometre, the connection held. The Elecktrec American Solar Challenge 2026 is now over. And they won. A total distance of 4,298.9 km, the first-ever win by a European team in the race's history. 🏆 To the whole @Innoptus Solar Team: thank you for trusting us with something this important. Watching you make history, powered by nothing but the sun, will stay with us as one of the great privileges of our year. This is exactly what we mean when we say reliable connectivity, anywhere.