Reliable internet is now indispensable to daily life, fueling remote work, digital payments, streaming, learning, and home protection. As this new dependency grew, so has the steady growth of wireless subscriptions in India, where urban zones rose to 627.08 million in December 2024, reaching 631.60 million by January 2025. Consumer devices are supporting more bandwidth-demanding uses, and therefore, the demand for high-performing, seamless Wi-Fi has never been higher. Yet most Indian homes continue to struggle with connectivity issues, not from an absence of service but from in-home errors such as incorrect router placement, out-of-date hardware, and inefficient configurations that degrade performance and annoy customers on a daily basis.
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Why Wi-Fi Needs Rethinking
Modern homes host a growing web of connected devices spread across rooms and floors, often divided by thick walls. Basic fixes like extenders or resets offer only temporary relief in such conditions. What’s needed is a smarter, system-level approach. Here are five common Wi-Fi mistakes, and how to resolve them for lasting performance.
1. Placing the Router in the Wrong Location
The location of a router is more than a matter of convenience—it directly determines signal strength, coverage, and stability. All too often, routers are placed near the floor, tucked behind furniture, or confined to a corner room. These placements may seem tidy, but they significantly reduce the effective range of the signal.
Also read: The Hidden Price of Poor Wi-Fi in Gated Communities
To unlock the router’s full potential, placement must be strategic. An elevated, central, and unobstructed location—preferably in the middle of the home—ensures that signals travel evenly across rooms. Keeping it away from thick concrete walls, large appliances, and other electronic devices also prevents unnecessary interference, allowing the network to serve its full coverage promise.
2. Relying on Basic Range Extenders to Solve Dead Zones
When faced with weak signals in certain parts of the house, many households reach for budget Wi-Fi extenders as a quick fix. While these devices may boost signal reach slightly, they often introduce new issues, such as slower speeds, inconsistent switching between networks, and a fragmented user experience.
A far more effective approach is the use of a mesh Wi-Fi system. Unlike traditional extenders, mesh systems create a unified network through multiple intelligent nodes that work in sync. As users move through the home, devices automatically connect to the strongest node, ensuring seamless transitions, consistent speed, and uninterrupted connectivity across floors and walls.
3. Employing Outdated, Single-Band Routers for Newer Needs
Most homes still make do with single-band routers, typically using the 2.4 GHz band, that were originally designed for less complex days. With family members today streaming movies, having video calls, smart homes, and gaming in real-time, these routers start to act as bottlenecks, struggling to assign bandwidth dynamically or efficiently handle device loads.
The key is to upgrade to dual-band or tri-band routers that feature Wi-Fi 6 and subsequent generations. They not just provide more bands to utilize but also newer technologies such as OFDMA and MU-MIMO, which handle multiple device connections simultaneously much more efficiently. Implementing this update ensures high-bandwidth applications don’t push out basic background processes, creating an overall smoother and faster experience.
4. Neglecting Firmware Updates and Router Obsolescence
Like any other contemporary device, routers depend on software updates to be secure and perform well. However, many homes overlook these updates, unaware of the admin interface or thinking that an already-working router does not need maintenance. Gradually, this compromises the performance, introduces vulnerabilities, and prevents it from being compatible with newer devices.
Regularly updating router firmware is essential to maintain both performance and safety. In cases where the device is several years old, no amount of updating can substitute for outdated hardware. In such instances, replacing the router altogether with a newer model that supports modern standards and larger capacities is often the only long-term fix.
Toward More Resilient Home Connectivity
The Wi-Fi experience in Indian households is no longer just about speed—it’s about intelligence, coverage, stability, and security. As homes grow smarter and more connected, it is imperative that Wi-Fi infrastructure keeps pace. The shift begins with recognising common oversights and investing in solutions designed for modern realities, not outdated assumptions.
By addressing these five critical areas, households can transform their digital experience, ensuring that connectivity becomes an enabler, not a hindrance, to the evolving demands of work, study, leisure, and smart living.
The article has been written by Naveen Nahar, VP Marketing, ACT Fibernet
