US Survey: WiFi 6 Doesn’t Help End-Users

We’ve had a new WiFi standard approximately every 3–5 years since the beginning of WiFi, but end-user issues have remained the same. The main requirement is for dependable WiFi connections with modest speeds and no connection drops when online.

We conducted a thorough study in the United States to determine customer happiness and what they are doing to improve the WiFi experience. A total of 1682 WiFi users took part in the poll. The study’s questions yielded several fascinating results, which are detailed in the following sections.

Despite the fact that theoretical WiFi speeds have improved from 600 Mbps in WiFi 4 to 6.9 Gbps in WiFi 5 and 9.6 Gbps in WiFi 6, WiFi5 users will see little difference when switching to WiFi6. The biggest shift, in principle, is from WiFi 4 to WiFi 5/6. All of these WiFi protocols have sufficient throughput capacity to guarantee a reasonable internet speed.

To check the user satisfaction level in the US market, we asked how happy they are with the WiFi broadband internet experience.

Streamlined Internet Access

According to the report, over half of all users in the United States appear to be satisfied in practically all cases, regardless of WiFi standard. In the WiFi6 environment, we found a ten percent gain in satisfaction when compared to previous WiFi versions.

The survey results suggest that end-users are slightly happier with WiFi6, while the improvement is almost insignificant. Even Nevertheless, over 30% of end-users are dissatisfied with their WiFi performance.

We looked at the percentage of end-user satisfaction with WiFi reliability in order to determine the important parameters affecting the internet broadband experience. We discovered that a substantial proportion of end-users were dissatisfied with the WiFi’s reliability. Even the implementation of WiFi 6 had little effect.

The dependability of WiFi

The numbers for WiFi reliability are remarkably identical to those for broadband internet experience, according to a survey conducted in the United States.

A poor WiFi experience could be caused by a number of factors, including inadequate signal strength or a broken WiFi router. According to our tests, there is a clear link between WiFi signal strength and download speed. The median download speed of end-users in the United States is around 4Mbps when the signal intensity is low, i.e. -90 dBm, until it reaches around 50Mbps at a maximum signal strength of -35dBm with few changes, maintaining an upward linear trend.

What could be causing the signal to be weak, and what are end-users doing to enhance signal strength? We feel that a WiFi router that is in an inconvenient location can lead to poor WiFi performance. The purpose of our poll was to find out what proportion of people optimize the location of their WiFi router in order to get a good signal.

Location Optimization for WiFi Routers

The idea of WiFi router position optimization is supported by a user survey from the US market. In diverse settings, 67–73 percent of end-users improve their router location to receive a good signal.

The position of the WiFi router is a critical component that determines the intensity of the signal. To acquire a reliable and robust signal to connect to the internet, a larger percentage of users tend to optimise the location of the WiFi router, regardless of router type.

End-users in the United States are not only attempting to optimise the position of the router in order to increase WiFi performance, but they are also willing to go the extra mile by updating their routers. In most parts of the world, however, people do not upgrade their WiFi router until it is broken. The US market, on the other hand, tells a different narrative.

Cycle of WiFi Router Upgrades

The time it takes to upgrade a router in the US market is short, according to a poll. Only 4% of people have WiFi routers older than 5 years, according to 77 percent of consumers who have changed their WiFi routers in the last two years.

Key Takeaway: In the US market, the average update time is short, possibly due to device cost and availability rather than advanced capabilities of WiFi routers that claim to offer better speeds and a larger number of connected devices.

It’s vital to note that not all customers who want to upgrade will be able to do so. Most customers who rented WiFi routers from an ISP may find it difficult to upgrade to newer WiFi versions. End-user satisfaction is also affected by an extended contract with an ISP. According to our research, most WiFi routers are delivered as part of an ISP bundle.

Ownership of a WiFi Router

63 percent of end-users had WiFi routers from their ISPs in mixed WiFi environments with new and older WiFi routers. The number was significantly greater in the absence of WiFi6, at 66 percent. 55 percent of users, on the other hand, had obtained WiFi6 routers from their ISPs.

However, the percentage of end-users that purchased their WiFi routers is far lower. In a mixed environment, 37% of end-users purchased WiFi routers, whereas 34% purchased routers in scenarios where there is no WiFi6. In contrast, a considerable percentage of end-users, 45 percent, had WiFi6 routers.

The paucity of WiFi6 routers in the market is indicated by a lower percentage of WiFi6 routers from ISPs than previous WiFi routers; this trend is projected to continue for at least 2–3 years before WiFi6 is deployed at scale. Consumers’ excitement to purchase the latest routers is reflected in the higher percentage of WiFi6 router ownership.

In summary, users are doing everything they can to assure consistent WiFi access, such as adjusting the router’s placement or even upgrading to the most recent products. Unfortunately, the new WiFi standards haven’t increased end-user satisfaction as much as projected; about half of end-users are dissatisfied with WiFi performance, with only a few exceptions.