Virgin Media has today announced a series of new WiFi updates that will give millions of its customers the UK’s fastest widely available broadband speeds in more areas of their home.
The game-changing technology was developed by Liberty Global and has already been rolled out to all Virgin Media customers with a Hub 3 router, free of charge. It is a smart, cloud-based, adaptive system that is continuously evolving and ingeniously tackles many of the problems that can hold people back from getting the best performance from their WiFi.
With Intelligent WiFi, Virgin Media customers can feel real benefits to their wireless connectivity with minimal effort. Extensive testing has seen speeds improving by up to three times to many devices without the aid of a booster, unlike many other broadband providers.
This means that regardless of the type of property lived in – and the number of people living in it – customers can make the most of their ultrafast connectivity by streaming 4K programming, gaming online or simply browsing the net, all at the same time across multiple devices.
Richard Sinclair MBE, Executive Director of Connectivity at Virgin Media, said: “Delivering ultrafast broadband to help make Britain faster is what we do best at Virgin Media, but making sure this translates into reliable in-home connectivity is just as important. Intelligent WiFi will allow our customers to make the most of their broadband while also helping to easily overcome any connectivity conundrums around the home. With families using more devices than ever before, it’s vital they can all be online whenever needed. Whether it’s streaming UHD movies on Netflix, playing the latest games online or video conferencing, Intelligent WiFi has your back.”
Connect App
The new Connect app will be the central control panel for all intelligent WiFi features.
Through the app customers can test the strength of their WiFi from room-to-room, which will also detect any blackspots in the home; manage devices that are connected to a home network; pause devices and access in-app customer support to help resolve any problems.
WiFi Boosters
In the rare instance that a WiFi booster is required to remove connectivity blackspots in the home, these can be ordered directly through the Connect app with Full House and VIP customers able to get these free of charge.
Intelligent WiFi
Intelligent WiFi on the Hub 3 router is a smart system that adapts to the needs of the home and the devices that are connected to WiFi. It is made up of many features that work side-by-side to ensure that the best WiFi performance is being delivered. These include:
Channel optimisation: All WiFi operates over a number of channels. Channel Optimisation helps ensure connected devices and gadgets are performing as best as they can. As a result of Intelligent WiFi, testing has shown that 18% of homes should experience less WiFi interference thanks to more than 300,000 optimisations per day ensuring that devices are being switched to less crowded WiFi channels.
Band Steering: This is the process which prompts gadgets and devices to seamlessly switch between a 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency to optimise performance. With band steering on the Hub 3, testing showed that gadgets connecting to the 5GHz frequency increased by 25%, giving these devices greater speeds.
Airtime Fairness: This helps to share out WiFi evenly across connected devices. Some older devices can’t keep up with ultrafast broadband speeds which can impact WiFi performance in the home. Intelligent WiFi will improve the share of WiFi to devices throughout the home.
With all of the above implemented as part of Intelligent WiFi, third party testing showed that broadband speeds registered on devices significantly increased in rooms throughout the home – up to three times faster.