Tune in, turn on and no drop-out with Wi-Fi Gold
This article will take approximately 2 minutes to read
Published 28 Jan 2020 in Colleagues
Read how Wi-Fi Gold was ‘a game-changer’ for our very own Alistair Rowland (Chief Retail Officer - Specialist Businesses) providing ‘a consistent signal wherever we were in the house’ when he volunteered to trial one of The Phone Co-op’s Wi-Fi products.
One of the most annoying problems for connected households is patchy Wi-Fi reception in different parts of the house. It was an issue that had dogged Alistair Rowland and his family for several years in their home.
“We wanted to stream movies and programmes which meant that a good, strong, stable Wi-Fi signal was essential.” he says.
To deal with the house’s unusual layout, the family had five extenders connected to their BT Home Hub, allowing the signal from the router to be boosted in different areas of the house.
“This was fine when everything worked well, but the router itself was frequently down - in fact, we had no fewer than four BT routers in the last two years, which did little to solve the problem,” says Alistair.
“Every time the Wi-Fi was rebooted, every extender needed to be reset individually, which was a real hassle.”
Luckily Alistair, who is the Chief Retail Officer for Midcounties Co-op, was in the ideal position to do something about it.
The Phone Co-op joined the Midcounties family of businesses in 2018 and Alistair volunteered to be one of the first people to trial one of its new Wi-Fi products.
Wi-Fi Gold means you get Wi-Fi everywhere
As it works with an existing router to distribute the signal smoothly around the home and improve speeds, too.
It creates a linked network between two or three strategically placed plug-in distributor units and automatically connects your device to the nearest unit, so you don’t have to reconnect manually if the signal drops out as you move around the property.
In addition, Wi-Fi Gold’s beamforming technology directs radio signals straight at each device for faster, stronger and more reliable Wi-Fi connection.
With Wi-Fi Gold and a new router from The Phone Co-op, the effect was dramatic - even on Alistair’s problematic BT broadband connection.
“The new router combined with Wi-Fi Gold was a real game-changer - a huge step forward,” he said. “We had a consistent signal wherever we were in the house.”
When Alistair moved in the summer of 2019 to a new house with FTTP (Fibre To The Premises - now the standard connectivity for all newbuilds), he chose The Phone Co-op for his broadband connection, too.
“We no longer have the complicated layout of the old house - but we are getting around 100mB on a regular basis. The lowest speed we ever experience is 50mB, which is still more than enough for anything we need it for.
“And now, if the signal does ever drop out, we don’t have to re-set every distributor unit once it’s all rebooted - they come back online automatically.
“I think a lot of people will be surprised that this technology is available from The Phone Co-op as well as companies like BT. It just goes to show it is possible to experience the fastest speed and the latest technology without signing up to one of the broadband giants.”
Wi-Fi Gold works with any router and is available from The Phone Co-op for just £5.50 per month.
The Phone Co-op is the UK’s only telecoms co-operative, owned by its members for the benefit of its customers.
It has Ethical Consumer magazine’s ‘Best Buy’ for Broadband and it's Fair Price Promise on Broadband guarantees no price increases while in contract. When your contract ends, you’re automatically transferred to the lowest standard rate.
Buy Wi-Fi Gold for only £4.40 per month with your colleague discount by clicking here.