Report: Sharp rise in neighbouring WiFi networks
May 31, 2023
Personalised communications services pioneer Plume has issued its latest Plume IQ report for May 2023, revealing a significant and global increase in the number of neighbouring WiFi networks that each Plume HomePass-powered smart home network can see. These neighbouring signals have the potential to create interference when communicating with devices.
When comparing the second half of 2021 to the same period in 2022, the average number of surrounding networks has increased by 11 per cent, to an average of 28.6 per home, globally. This means there are almost 29 WiFi networks competing for the same airspace, leaving Communications Service Providers (CSPs) and their customers with possible interference problems that, if not managed proactively, could lead to Quality of Experience (QoE) issues.
At a regional level, the US saw the largest increase (+15.5 per cent), followed by Europe (+8 per cent) and Japan (+15.5 per cent). Japan recorded the highest number of neighboring WiFi networks (30.2).
The findings are derived from more than 2.5 billion connected devices, and over 48 million locations, managed in the Plume Cloud.