By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
New Airties report reveals huge dissatisfaction with home Wi-Fi in US & UK
A new survey and report commissioned by Airties reveals that approximately one third of more than 2,000 surveyed home broadband subscribers in the US and UK are considering switching to another ISP because of connectivity quality issues. The report can be found here. UK households are slightly harder hit with 37% considering a switch while the number for the US is 28%. A staggering 24% of the UK households surveyed have switched ISP in the past 12 months. It’s a huge and expensive problem for which solutions exist, Airties says.
“It’s a multi-billion-dollar problem for broadband service providers globally. With such high churn rates, ISPs are forced to spend incredible time and money chasing new customers every year—just to break even for the customers they lost. Any incremental improvement in churn can unlock growth and massively improve the bottom line,” says Metin Taskin, CEO & founder of Airties. The report drew coverage from – among others – the Independent online in the UK with the headline “Millions of Brits struggling with poor wifi connections while working from home“.
Brightspeed US launches Wi-Fi 7 service backed by 8 Gbps fibre connectivity
North Carolina-based broadband service provider Brightspeed last week launched its first Wi-Fi 7-based service. The Wi-Fi 7 service is available as part of Brightspeed’s 8 Gbps fibre-based broadband subscription, which is one of the fastest in the US. The service is available as of October 8 in 89 communities connected by Brightspeed fibre at a cost of US$89.99 per month. The new offering includes a whole-home mesh system in addition to Brightspeed’s Wi-Fi 7 router. Brightspeed operates in 20 states with a network capable of serving more than 7.3 million subscribers, the company says. Read more here.
White House confirms unwavering leadership in 6 GHz Wi-Fi
According to this LinkedIn post by Broadcom’s Chris Szymanski, Deputy Assistant to the President Robin Colwell (see graphic below) has confirmed that US leadership in 6 GHz Wi-Fi will continue. Robin Colwell’s unequivocal statement that “US policy is not changing regarding the 6 GHz band” came at SCTE TexExpo25 last week in Washington DC and her full length comments can be viewed here (starting at 3.44). Her statements should definitively lay to rest any remaining speculation that the 6 GHz band could be targeted for licensed mobile services, a discussion that began some months ago in connection with spectrum concessions included in the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’.
Fibre is winning in Latin America – but needs better Wi-Fi, Ookla says
Fibre is rolling out fast across Latin America and now substantially exceeds availability of DSL, a new report by Ookla reveals. Meanwhile operators are not nearly as fast in replacing legacy Wi-Fi routers with the Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7-capable equipment needed for fibre-based broadband services to make sense, Ookla analyst Mike Dano says in this Ookla research article. Some Latin American operators still maintain a large installed base of Wi-Fi 4 home routers offering a maximum theoretical throughput of 600 Mbps while offering gigabit fibre-based speeds to the home.
/Claus.
