Wi‑Fi 6 is not the line

Every generation of Wi‑Fi arrives with the energy of a new motorway. The box says 6, then 6E, then 7, and a certain kind of shop assistant will tell you this is why the upstairs bedroom buffers. Sometimes they are right about the bedroom. They are almost never right about the line. The line is a drop, an ONT, a tariff. The radio is a local weather system. Confusing them is a very profitable confusion.

Two products in one plastic shell

The provider hub is a modem or ONT-facing router plus a radio. The WAN side negotiates with the network. The LAN side paints Wi‑Fi around your furniture. A firmware update can help one side and do nothing for the other.

When a retailer advertises ‘Wi‑Fi 6 hub included’, they are describing the radio they posted. They are not describing the 115 Mbit FTTC you actually ordered. Read both sentences.

The ethernet verdict

One gigabit-capable laptop, one cable, one test at the hub. If that number is near the tariff and the phone in the kitchen is not, you have a radio problem. If that number is a third of the tariff, you have a line, a port, or a profile problem.

A 100 Mbit ethernet port on a work laptop will cap a 900 Mbit line with a straight face. USB dongles lie in their own way. Borrow a known-good cable before you buy a mesh cathedral.

When to upgrade the radio

Thick walls, a long flat, a hub in a meter cupboard, twenty devices arguing at 7pm: a better access point (or two) is a household improvement. Put it on ethernet backhaul if you can. Do not expect it to alter Ofcom’s speed graph.

If you already have FTTP and a decent hub, the next pound is often a cable to the desk you work at, not another standard year in the alphabet.

Standards upgrade the air. Contracts upgrade the drop. Know which you are unhappy with.

Wi‑Fi 7 is a fine radio. It is not a network. Buy it for the house you have, not for the megabits you were promised on a pole.