As WiFi increasingly becomes a vital part of our lives, we are starting to see a congestion issue on our routers; specifically on WiFi.

You can see this by using apps like ‘WiFi Analyzer’, which will show you the channels your router is using and also the channels your neighbours routers are using! As such, when you are all trying to use the same channel, they will clash and cause connection issues. This may seem as if the broadband has failed, but in fact the issue is to do with WiFi, and will not show up on your standard broadband tests. 

Consequently, a few years ago we saw the introduction of '5G' (nothing to do with the new version of mobile data that is being tested). This is the 5GHz frequency range that enables us to increase the frequency range and speed of your WiFi.

We are testing a new VMG3925 ZyXel router (we call it Anton) and I am seeing 125 channels, we are also able to get 1300mbps speed over WiFi. Yes that’s 1.3 Gbps data transfer rate. And, if you are connecting lots of devices internally to each other you will see a great benefit in using 5G. 

Anton can also run at the more common 2.4G and as such will give you full flexibility to run both 5G and 2.4G simultaneously. Giving you the option to connect older devices and newer wireless devices to this router.

The primary differences between the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz wireless frequencies are range and bandwidth. 5GHz provides faster data rates at a shorter distance, whereas 2.4GHz offers coverage for longer distances, but may perform at slower speeds.

As we are connecting more and more devices to the internet this is another great step forward to ease the ever-increasing congestion.