Interesting comments by Frontier Communications CEO Dan McCarthy at a J.P. Morgan conference – specifically: 40% or so of perceived Internet slowness is really due to a customer having a WiFi router that experiences interference from his neighbor’s WiFi router. When I say interesting I really mean bizarre. Mr. McCarthy is correct in asserting that WiFi channel interference impacts customers. The real issue, though, is why Frontier and their cable and telco brethren continue to install routers with substandard WiFi functionality. The big boys in the business, like Ruckus Wireless, figured out years ago that WiFi access points needed channel and power agility to prevent interference.  Most home routers still lack this basic functionality.

This issue really becomes a major problem in apartment buildings, where every resident has his own router and they bleed over and interfere with each other. Interference in this environment is huge but goes unnoticed by most customers. Yes, some will figure out they can download a tool (like WiFi analyzer or OpenSignal’s product) that will suggest a better channel – but most don’t. I haven’t seen any facility in these products to lower power output (which would also reduce potential interference). Read the whole story here: FierceTelecom.