Why is my WiFi slow when I have fibre?

First: is it the fibre or the WiFi?

Plug a computer directly into the router with a cable and run a speed test. If you get your contracted speed over cable but not over WiFi, the fibre is working perfectly: the bottleneck is the wireless network.

1. Walls, floors and materials

Stone and concrete construction, so common in Andorra, blocks the signal heavily. A single router rarely covers a multi-storey home well, let alone the garage, terrace or garden.

2. Where the router is

The router usually sits where the fibre comes in: inside a cupboard, in the hallway or at one end of the house. From there, the signal has to pass through walls and doors to reach the rooms where it's actually used.

3. Consumer extenders

They extend coverage, but they use the same channel to receive and retransmit, so real speed drops. Daisy-chain them and it gets worse.

4. Bands and interference

The 2.4 GHz band reaches further but is slow and crowded; 5 GHz (and 6 GHz on recent equipment) is much faster but has shorter range. In apartment blocks, neighbours' networks interfere.

5. Too many devices on a home router

Phones, TVs, cameras, smart plugs and consoles: a consumer router isn't designed to manage dozens of devices with priorities.

The professional solution

• Wired access points in each area instead of extenders: every point gets full speed over the cable.
• Seamless roaming: your phone moves between points without dropping.
• Separate networks for guests and smart-home devices.
• Cable where it counts: TV, home office, console or work computer.

If there's no cable to each floor, an existing conduit can often be used or a discreet cable run. We assess it on a site visit.