Guide · connecting two buildings
Connecting two buildings: fibre, wireless bridge or microwave?
You have two buildings and one network that needs to be in both. There are exactly three ways to do it: a point-to-point wireless bridge, a licensed microwave link, or fibre in the ground. Each is the right answer for a different site, and the wrong one wastes real money. This guide compares them honestly and shows which fits your situation.
Last updated 9 July 2026 · by Alien IT Solutions
The three ways, in plain terms
A wireless bridge is two directional antennas, one on each building, aimed at each other. Your network rides the beam. No digging, no line rental, installed in days. It needs the two mounting points to see each other, and in town it has to fight for clean spectrum. The full detail is in our point-to-point between buildings guide, and if you want to see the idea move, the interactive explainer shows exactly how a bridge carries data across a gap.
A licensed microwave link is the same idea grown up: carrier-grade radios on a frequency licensed to you alone, so nobody can legally interfere with it. It costs more and takes longer because of the licence, and it is how banks and hospitals join buildings. Details in the microwave links guide.
Fibre is glass in the ground: either a carrier's leased line delivered as a service, or your own private fibre trenched between the buildings. Highest capacity, immune to weather and spectrum, and the slowest and most disruptive to get installed. Covered in fibre backhaul.
The honest comparison
| Wireless bridge | Licensed microwave | Fibre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real-world speed | Gigabit-class on a clean hop | Gigabit-class, guaranteed clean | Highest, multi-gigabit and beyond |
| Time to running | Days | Weeks, licence included | Weeks to months |
| Disruption | None, roof work only | None, roof work only | Trenching, permits, reinstatement |
| Cost shape | One-off hardware you own | One-off plus licence fees | Civil works by the metre, or monthly rental |
| Needs line of sight | Yes | Yes | No |
| What hurts it | Crowded spectrum, blocked path | Very little, extreme weather at the margins | Diggers, and the install itself |
Costs are deliberately shown as shapes, not figures, because every one of them is dominated by your site: the distance, the ground, the roof access and the spectrum around you.
Which one fits your situation
The buildings can see each other and you want it done this month: wireless bridge. It is the only option that reliably lands inside a month, and for most offices, warehouses and workshops its speed is not the bottleneck.
A public road or someone else's land sits between you: wireless or microwave. Trenching under a road means council permits, utility locates and reinstatement, and that is where private fibre projects blow out. The air is free to cross.
You own the ground in between: private fibre becomes genuinely attractive, especially on a farm or industrial yard where a trench is a Saturday with a machine rather than a permit process. Pair it with a bridge as backup and you have both capacity and resilience.
The link is business-critical with compliance requirements: licensed microwave or a carrier leased line, because both come with exclusive spectrum or a contracted service level. This is the bank-and-hospital tier.
More than two buildings: the shape changes from one link to a hub, which is point-to-multipoint territory.
House to shed rather than office to office: the same physics at residential scale, covered in the shed-to-house guide.
The pattern most sites end up with
Start wireless, add fibre only if the site outgrows it. The bridge goes in fast, proves the need, and carries the site for years. If fibre arrives later, the bridge does not come down: it becomes the backup path, and the day an excavator finds the cable, the site stays online. The two options are not rivals so much as stages, and nothing about starting with wireless locks you out of anything.
What we check before recommending anything
Every one of these options lives or dies on the site, so the first step is always the same: a site and line-of-sight survey. Can the mounting points see each other, what is the spectrum like at each end, where does the cable enter the building, who has to approve roof access, and what does the ground between you actually belong to. An hour of survey routinely saves a project from the wrong choice.
Common questions
What is the cheapest way to connect two buildings?
Usually a point-to-point wireless bridge, because it is a one-off hardware install with no trenching and no monthly line rental. Fibre costs scale with digging distance and reinstatement, and a leased line trades a big install for an ongoing rental. The real answer depends on what sits between the buildings, which is why we survey first.
Is a wireless bridge as good as fibre between two buildings?
For most business uses, yes. A clean modern link carries gigabit-class throughput with low latency, enough to run the far building as if it were on the same network. Fibre still wins on absolute capacity, on immunity to weather and spectrum, and on multi-gigabit future-proofing. The honest framing: fibre is better, a bridge is very often more than good enough and available far sooner.
How long does each option take to install?
A wireless bridge typically goes in within days once mounting and access are sorted. Licensed microwave adds licence coordination, usually weeks. Trenched fibre depends on digging permissions and civil work, and carrier leased lines commonly quote delivery in weeks to months. If the deadline is this month, wireless is usually the only option that makes it.
Do I need permission to trench fibre or mount antennas?
Both need permission, but different kinds. Antennas need the building owner or strata to approve roof access and a cable run. Trenching needs whoever owns the ground: your own land is easy, a shared driveway means the neighbour, and a public road involves council and utility locates, which is where fibre projects slow down and grow.
Can I start with wireless and move to fibre later?
Yes, and it is a common pattern. The bridge carries the site from day one, and if fibre is trenched later the bridge stays up as an independent backup path, which is exactly what you want when a digger goes through the cable. Nothing about starting wireless locks you out of fibre.
What if the two buildings cannot see each other?
Line of sight only matters for the wireless options. If a building or hill blocks the path, a relay point can bend the link around the obstruction, or the job shifts to fibre or a leased line, which do not care about sight lines. A survey settles it quickly, and it is the first thing we check.
Link your two buildings.
Tell us where the two buildings are and what sits between them. We will check the line of sight and price the bridge.
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