WiFi6 Router

[TechmanagerMal]

I see the Vodaphone WiFi6E Router is now available, what news on the Sky offering?

[GD1]

@TechmanagerMal  Nothing has been released by Sky.

[TimmyBGood]

@TechmanagerMal 

Vodafone as an ISP is something like a sixth of the size of Sky, and has a correspondingly lower hardware demand.  Neither Sky or BT is likely to have a WiFi 6 router any time soon: it appears they just can't get a large enough batch manufactured to meet the expected demand.

[Mr+Slant]

I suspect an additional reason for not supplying 802.11ax routers is that Sky can see what customers are connecting to their routers and the vast majority of devices aren't ax (or even ac) capable. The only exceptions to this would be mobile phones and fairly recent laptops.

Makes no sense to supply more expensive routers when the benefits of them would be marginal at best.

Frankly if you want decent wifi then go and buy a decent access point & turn the wifi off on the ISP-supplied router because you're never going to get what I'd define as "decent" wifi from a device built to the budget mass-market ISPs require.

YMMV of course.

[cookiemonsteruk]

@Mr+Slant 

True, but the inclusion of ofdma, mu-mimo and the fact that you would be able to push the 5ghz channels further up the freq range would benefit 5ghz ac

[Mr+Slant]

@cookiemonsteruk 

Have you considered the reasons why ISPs don't generally enable DFS channels?

If not then its ALL to do with customer support.

How do you explain to the average punter that if you choose a certain range of channels then there's a 10 minute dwell time while checking for radar?

Likewise what happens when the router detects radar, switches to another DFS channel and there's a dwell time of 1-10 minutes before 5GHz wifi is available?

If you know what you're doing you can (on a decent AP) use channels 100 upwards and legally use 5 times the output power you can on C32-64. Radio has to support that, so extra cost. No reason to use those channels otherwise unless you're looking for frequency seperation in a multiple AP scenario. Edit - or you're using the AP outdoors in the UK where its mandatory to use C100 upwards (you can & WILL get hit with large fines if you contravene this within range of an airport).

All about customer support in terms of DFS channels really 🙂

[TimmyBGood]

---

@Mr+Slant wrote:

Makes no sense to supply more expensive routers when the benefits of them would be marginal at best.

A more pressing pain point for ISPs is probably Apple devices shouting about the absence of WPA3.

[Mr+Slant]

@TimmyBGood 

True enough although WPA3 in a domestic environment isn't exactly a pressing issue in terms of security or overheads.

Apple fans aren't exactly noted for being "quiet" right enough 😉