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AT&T Launches $35 Smart Wi-Fi Extender to Boost Coverage by Up To 1,000 Square Feet

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AT&T has launched the "AT&T Smart Wi-Fi Extender," a device built to enable a stronger and more consistent Wi-Fi signal throughout your home. AT&T's product is one box that keeps devices connected to the internet as you move from one room to another, and customers can purchase additional boxes for bigger homes.

The Smart Wi-Fi Extender is designed for customers with an AT&T internet subscription who have Wi-Fi gateways 5268AC or BGW210, boosting coverage by up to 1,000 square feet and reducing network congestion. The company said that it automatically selects the "best and fastest available connection" for every device that you connect to the internet within your home. AT&T created the extender in partnership with AirTies.

att-smart-wi-fi-extender.jpg

The company priced the Smart Wi-Fi Extender at $34.99, and said it offers the same Wi-Fi boosting abilities of competitive mesh systems "that cost hundreds of dollars." It appears that the Wi-Fi Extender was available for some AT&T customers to purchase ahead of the wider launch this week.
That's why we are introducing the new AT&T Smart Wi-Fi Extender - a state-of-the-art device that gives you the strongest Wi-Fi signal throughout your entire home. Its mesh technology keeps your devices connected as you move around, so you experience a seamless connection everywhere. Now you can stream, download, surf, and work on your devices anywhere, worry free. No dropped connection as you step into the backyard. No more interruptions or watching the football freeze in mid-air.
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The 4-inch box is a 1600Mbps dual-band concurrent wireless access point and includes a port for 2 Gigabit Ethernet LAN and a power cable. AT&T also noted that it is compliant with 802.11ac and 802.11n standards, as well as being backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g wireless standards.

The Smart Wi-Fi Extender will connect to an established AT&T Wi-Fi network, which can be managed via the Smart Home Manager iOS app. The company announced the app last summer and refers to it as a customer's "Wi-Fi concierge." With the app, users can change their network name and password, check who is connected to the network, invite guests to join with a text or email, and contact customer service in a chatroom.

Article Link: AT&T Launches $35 Smart Wi-Fi Extender to Boost Coverage by Up To 1,000 Square Feet
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/22/att-launches-wi-fi-extender/
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justperry said:
1000 square feet isn't even 100 square meters, my Uniquiti Unifi AC Pro has a lot more coverage and can probably have many more clients on one single device.
Price seems to be good though.
Click to expand...

I'm a Unifi convert myself but I think most people just don't have the time or experience to setup one of these. For most people, I just say they should go get a mesh network like Eero and be done with it although I know they'd do better with Unifi but asking them to buy a USG, Switch and 2-3 APs and set them up is just too much for people.


My setup is great. I can go 4 houses down to a neighbor's BBQ and still have full coverage with my AC LR network.
 
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This is a great product with lots of good tech behind it. I tested it out in my 2138SQF two story home was surprised how good it was. Only down side I think is that the wifi it retrieves from the 5268ac can at sometimes not be as stable as it should be. This extender is defaulted to "Band Steering" (provided that you are using the same SSID for both bands on the 5268ac/BGW210) and for me may have cost some problems. Overall a good product but for my home environment it was not as good as my Amlifi HD mesh system. Great entry price for those with limited tech knowledge because it is very easy to setup.
 
justperry said:
1000 square feet isn't even 100 square meters, my Uniquiti Unifi AC Pro has a lot more coverage and can probably have many more clients on one single device.
Price seems to be good though.
Click to expand...

Are you trying to troll us? The Uniquiti is 3x more expensive than this.
 
A home that size, just get a quality modem/router. Most have excellent range, and unless the home has some obstacles or multiple levels, like a brick fireplace in the way, should be all one needs.
 
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justperry said:
And 10 times better.
I also said this device has a fair price, you get what you pay for, reasonable quality for a decent/low price.

Most consumer Wifi products just suck, especially the ones you get from your ISP.
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The gateway my cable company (Cox) gave us is great, I reach the speeds I should be getting easily, and coverage is good, though it would be hard for me to test as the house isn't very big
 
SoN1NjA said:
The gateway my cable company (Cox) gave us is great, I reach the speeds I should be getting easily, and coverage is good, though it would be hard for me to test as the house isn't very big
Click to expand...

Good for you, here we get crappy Ubee modems/routers, I myself disabled most functions on that one and use Ubiquiti for the rest.
 
justperry said:
1000 square feet isn't even 100 square meters, my Uniquiti Unifi AC Pro has a lot more coverage and can probably have many more clients on one single device.
Price seems to be good though.
Click to expand...

Do you always talk about the size of a house in square meters?
 
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MacRumors said:



AT&T has launched the "AT&T Smart Wi-Fi Extender," a device built to enable a stronger and more consistent Wi-Fi signal throughout your home. AT&T's product is one box that keeps devices connected to the internet as you move from one room to another, and customers can purchase additional boxes for bigger homes.

The Smart Wi-Fi Extender is designed for customers with an AT&T internet subscription who have Wi-Fi gateways 5268AC or BGW210, boosting coverage by up to 1,000 square feet and reducing network congestion. The company said that it automatically selects the "best and fastest available connection" for every device that you connect to the internet within your home.

att-smart-wi-fi-extender.jpg

The company priced the Smart Wi-Fi Extender at $34.99, and said it offers the same Wi-Fi boosting abilities of competitive mesh systems "that cost hundreds of dollars." It appears that the Wi-Fi Extender was available for some AT&T customers to purchase ahead of the wider launch this week.
The 4-inch box is a 1600Mbps dual-band concurrent wireless access point and includes a port for 2 Gigabit Ethernet LAN and a power cable. AT&T also noted that it is compliant with 802.11ac and 802.11n standards, as well as being backwards compatible with 802.11a/b/g wireless standards.

The Smart Wi-Fi Extender will connect to an established AT&T Wi-Fi network, which can be managed via the Smart Home Manager iOS app. The company announced the app last summer and refers to it as a customer's "Wi-Fi concierge." With the app, users can change their network name and password, check who is connected to the network, invite guests to join with a text or email, and contact customer service in a chatroom.

Article Link: AT&T Launches $35 Smart Wi-Fi Extender to Boost Coverage by Up To 1,000 Square Feet
Click to expand...
I have experience with this device and it is absolute crap, goes out all the time and is no better than a poor repeater. Frontier already uses this and the company who makes them just changes the name such as Airties, Frontier Secure etc.
 
rodytoon said:
I have experience with this device and it is absolute crap, goes out all the time and is no better than a poor repeater. Frontier already uses this and the company who makes them just changes the name such as Airties, Frontier Secure etc.
Click to expand...

So, you don't really have experience with this device at all? ISPs get their gateways and extenders from 3rd party companies (Motorola, Cisco, Arris, Pace) but rarely run the same firmware. Not sure when Frontier started selling their extenders, but it would surprise me if they are on the same firmware as something being released by another ISP today.
 
npmacuser5 said:
A home that size, just get a quality modem/router. Most have excellent range, and unless the home has some obstacles or multiple levels, like a brick fireplace in the way, should be all one needs.
Click to expand...

Its not that simple. A lot depends on how many wifi devices one has, their location in the home and most important the construction of the home. Interference from other devices also plays a part in what wifi solution you may need.Today streaming is another bump in the road to have good wifi.
 
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rodytoon said:
I have experience with this device and it is absolute crap, goes out all the time and is no better than a poor repeater. Frontier already uses this and the company who makes them just changes the name such as Airties, Frontier Secure etc.
Click to expand...

Any extender/mesh point placed to far from the access point or without extenders/mesh point between the extender and the access point most likely will drop the channel.
 
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I’m going to try out 2 of them. We have 2,700 sq ft with our router at the far end (I know bad planning). I currently use an airport express and a time capsule and have spotty service at the far end of the house. I blame the 2 brick walls the signal has to go through. I will set these up a little different and see if they help. Then sell my Apple products if this works better.
 
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lenard said:
Its not that simple. A lot depends on how many wifi devices one has, their location in the home and most important the construction of the home. Interference from other devices also plays a part in what wifi solution you may need.Today streaming is another bump in the road to have good wifi.
Click to expand...

The real issue now is that in most urban areas the houses are close enough together that you are getting interference from surrounding routers. Giving less technical customers more access points could make this issue even worse.
 
thebadapples said:
So, you don't really have experience with this device at all? ISPs get their gateways and extenders from 3rd party companies (Motorola, Cisco, Arris, Pace) but rarely run the same firmware. Not sure when Frontier started selling their extenders, but it would surprise me if they are on the same firmware as something being released by another ISP today.
Click to expand...

My first words where exactly that I have experience with this device as stated. The first unit malfunctioned after 6 months, delivering poor performance the whole time and intermittent signal, 5G signal would go out consistently requiring a restart of the unit. Placement was from one room to the other over standard walls. Repeater was already at 50% speed from main unit, therefore much slower speeds. After the first one died I was supplied a replacement, same unit different manufacturer name, same software as well. The software provided on this is done y manufacturer not the ISP provider, the way I know is that i followed manufacturers configuration booklets online and they were the exact same details. Second unit performed even worse, 5G signal would kick out consistently after a couple of hours and would go into red, then it would forget settings and broadcast original SSID and also the updated SSID, 2G signal was slow and intermittent, sometimes it would work others it would not requiring system to be restarted and another circle of errors to start. I have the unit with me, I Will happily ship it to you free of charge just so it can give you the same headaches it gave me since your trying to be a smart ( ( ).
 
The trick is att will use your internet as a AT&T hotspot for att users. Comcast does the same thing with their supplied modem/router. If you ever browse near by WiFis you can spot free xfinity WiFi and you can leech off their internet. Main reason why would not used a company supplied equipment, there’s always a catch.
 
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