By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Bouygues Telecom of France has introduced the ‘Bbox WiFi 7’ home gateway becoming only the fifth major European telco to launch a Wi-Fi 7 product and service. The Bbox WiFi 7 is a tri-band ‘native XGS-PON’ device delivering up to 7 Gbps of symmetric data rate and comes with up to two Wi-Fi 7 repeaters. Meanwhile Bouygues Telecom says it once again ranks first for Wi-Fi performance in France according to a study by nPerf speed tests.
France continues to be one of the most competitive Wi-Fi markets in Europe and now the battle to deliver the best possible Wi-Fi to home broadband consumers across France is heating up: Last week Thursday Bouygues Telecom introduced the ‘Bbox WiFi 7’, which means the company is now the second CSP to offer a Wi-Fi 7 product in France following Free’s launch in late January of last year. The new gateway is three times faster than Bouygues Telecom’s previous Wi-Fi 6 device delivering an ‘ultrafast and stable connection’, the company says. Bouygues Telecom serves approximately 4 million homes across France with fibre-based home broadband services.
A spokesperson for Bouygues Telecom points out that the Bbox WiFi 7 gateway and repeater are the first European operator-designed products to be fully Wi-Fi 7 certified by Wi-Fi Alliance and therefore also the first in Europe to carry the official ‘Wi-Fi 7 certified’ logo. To our knowledge the new Bouygues Telecom Wi-Fi 7 repeater is the first tri-band operator-designed Wi-Fi 7 repeater in the world.
The Bbox WiFi 7 comes with a touch screen on its front for controls and is completely silent as it does not include a fan. To connect to Wi-Fi, client devices simply need to scan a QR code displayed on the screen. Bouygues Telecom has also launched a new and improved app for easy management of the home Wi-Fi service. For sustainability the Bbox WiFi 7 comes in zero-plastic packaging and its casing is made from 90% recycled plastic. Bouygues Telecom expects the new gateway to achieve the ‘Green Product Mark’ certification by TÜV Rheinland soon.
The repeaters ensure that “the full power of Wi-Fi 7 is broadcast throughout the house and that means speeds well above those of dual-band repeaters even for non-Wi-Fi 7 compatible devices,” the company says. The new Bbox WiFi 7 will be available from January 27 in Bouygues Telecom stores with the ‘Bbox Ultym WiFi 7’ bundle priced at €44.99 per month for the first year, then €51.99 per month.
Bouygues Telecom also announced that it has been ranked first among broadband service providers in France for the sixth year running according to tests and studies performed by speed test company nPerf. The accolade includes number one rankings in download and upload speeds, latency, and video streaming. The results of the nPerf study are based on 2,193,209 tests conducted in metropolitan areas of France from 1. January to 31. December 2024, the company says.
To the best of our knowledge the following major operators have thus far launched Wi-Fi 7 services in Europe: Bouygues Telecom (France), Free (France), Swisscom (Switzerland), Iliad (Italy), and EE (UK). Most analysts expect many more Wi-Fi 7 service launches to happen this year.
Since all the press materials were in French and not widely distributed outside France, we would not have known about this important launch without the help of Mr Davor Males, Wi-Fi Expert at Bouygues. Thank you for that!
/Claus.
