Why expensive “WiFi 7” routers are legally stripping out mandatory features
Wi-Fi 7 is an exciting standard that promises faster, smarter wireless connections. Its flagship feature, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), allows devices to use multiple frequency bands at once to reduce latency and increase throughput.
However, not all new routers are true Wi-Fi 7 devices, and even those that are might not deliver the performance that the marketing suggests.
What Wi-Fi 7 Really Means and Why the Wording Matters
Not all Wi-Fi routers are equal
To help you understand the issue at hand here, we first need to look at what Wi-Fi 7 is. It’s the marketing term used for the IEEE 802.11be set of protocols defined by the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that owns the “Wi-Fi” brand. Remember this, it will matter in a moment.
Wi-Fi 7 introduces several improvements over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, such as 320 MHz channels (double the previous 160 MHz maximum), improved OFDMA, and 4K-QAM, which increases throughput by approximately 20% by encoding 12 bits of data in each symbol instead of 10.
However, all of these small improvements pale in comparison to MLO, which allows a compatible device to connect to multiple bands simultaneously instead of switching between them.
In theory, your phone could connect to a Wi-Fi 7 router using all three available bands (2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz) and use them simultaneously to minimize latency and interference while maximizing available bandwidth.
MLO is a required feature for a router to be labeled Wi-Fi 7, but there’s a catch: a Wi-Fi 7 router doesn’t need to support Simultaneous MLO (STR/Simultaneous Transmit and Receive Operation) using Enhanced Multi-Link Multi-Radio (EMLMR).
All the router needs to support to be called a Wi-Fi 7 router is Alternate MLO (NSTR/non-simultaneous transmit and receive operation)which is exactly what it sounds like: instead of connecting via multiple bands, the device only has one active radio at a time but can quickly switch to a different band if necessary.
The technology is based on Enhanced Multi-Link Single-Radio (EMLSR). Its ability to switch between bands in microseconds is impressive in itself, but it’s still far from what MLO was originally intended to offer.
As you can imagine, the majority of Wi-Fi 7 routers rely on alternating MLO rather than simultaneous MLO.
In fact, RTINGS has conducted extensive testing of MLO and found that no modern router supports true simultaneous MLO, even among Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 devices that have completed the Wi-Fi Alliance certification program.
I finally upgraded to a Wi-Fi 6 router and realized I was hindering my own internet access.
Please stop using your old Wi-Fi 5 router when Wi-Fi 6 is this cheap
Some brands are circumventing the Wi-Fi 7 standard with “WiFi 7” marketing
A WiFi router is not really a WiFi router?!
If a router markets itself as “Wi-Fi 7,” it’s generally safe to assume that its hardware is based on the IEEE 802.11be wireless networking standard, even if it isn’t officially certified and omits some optional features like 320 MHz channels, the 6 GHz band, or simultaneous MLO.
But what happens if a brand decides to take an alternative route by omitting the hyphen and marketing its routers as “WiFi 7” or “WiFi7”? You might expect this kind of quibble from anonymous importers on Alibaba, but some of the world’s biggest computer networking brands also market their routers under the name “WiFi,” presumably to avoid having to follow the exact branding rules set by the Wi-Fi Alliance.
The first brand to do this is Netgear.
Sure, the brand hints in an article that its WiFi 7 routers are based on the IEEE 802.11be standard, even going so far as to list requirements like MLO, 320 MHz channels, and 4K-QAM, but that doesn’t change the fact that the brand avoids using Wi-Fi Alliance terminology. And this entire article only focuses on the theoretical benefits of Wi-Fi 7 anyway.
I looked through several of Netgear’s current WiFi 7 offerings and, oddly enough, found no mention of MLO on any of its product pages.
This is a huge red flag, especially since most Netgear gear is priced at high-end routers. It’s no surprise that Netgear’s forums are filled with complaints from customers discovering that their routers don’t support the feature they paid hundreds of dollars for.
I’m not sure why Netgear does this – even my new $50 Mercusys MR25BE BE3600 Wi-Fi 7 router supports (alternately) MLO, whereas Netgear’s expensive WiFi 7 routers don’t have to promise the inclusion of actual Wi-Fi 7 features. This naming game is seriously harming consumer trust, and I wish more brands would be transparent about what their Wi-Fi 7 routers actually offer.
ASUS is another brand that uses the same shady tactics to circumvent official Wi-Fi branding.
However, the main difference between Netgear and ASUS is that ASUS still explicitly mentions IEEE 802.11be compliance on product pages. Even the brand’s cheapest WiFi 7 router, the ASUS RT-BE58U, supports MLO and all the other mandatory Wi-Fi 7 features.
ASUS and Netgear are not alone in this practice. Some other brands that don’t use the official Wi-Fi branding are Ubiquiti, Linksys, and, I’m not kidding, TP-Link, although it’s true that the vast majority of TP-Link routers use the hyphenated Wi-Fi branding and follow the standards.
Yet the very fact that brands are avoiding the hyphen implies that they could theoretically market a non-compliant router in the future, and consumers who don’t read the fine print wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Should You Even Buy a Wi-Fi 7 Router?
A useless upgrade
Between MLO’s empty promises and the use of “alternative” names for Wi-Fi 7, it’s difficult to determine whether you should even waste your energy buying a Wi-Fi 7 router. The truth is that aside from some minor efficiency improvements, Wi-Fi 7 offers virtually nothing worth upgrading, especially if you already have a decent Wi-Fi 6 router. Plus, there’s a good chance that most, if not all, of your devices won’t support Wi‑Fi 7 anyway.
In my opinion, one of the most important recent developments in wireless technology is the 6 GHz band, which is, oddly enough, the defining specification on Wi-Fi 6E routers but optional on Wi-Fi 7 routers.
- Wi-Fi bands
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Tri-band
- Supported standards
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802.11ax
If you want a great Wi-Fi 6e router but don’t want to spend a lot of money, check out this one from TP-Link.
6 GHz has low wall penetration, but it can offer faster speeds, lower latency, and less interference, making the Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 tri-band routers worth considering if you rely heavily on a Wi-Fi connection and are always close to your router or want to remedy your home network situation, like my colleague Corbin.
This is how 6GHz Wi-Fi fixed my home network
I can’t run cables everywhere, but 7 and 6 GHz Wi-Fi can fill in the gaps.
