According to research by Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands, the quality of Wi-Fi connections in the centre of Dutch cities has worsened in the last two years.

Poor to very poor internet

Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands measured the quality of the Wi-Fi connection in more than 200 places. Results showed a poor to very poor connection for almost 40 percent of the locations. Two years ago, this was only the case for 27 percent of the sites where measurements were taken.  

The poor results are due to the great number of networks competing to use the same bandwidth, namely 2,4GHz. This bandwidth is also used by Bluetooth devices and microwaves.

Battling for bandwidth

In Dutch inner cities, old houses are the most affected by Wi-Fi problems as the network signal is interfered with by neighbouring signals. Private and public networks compete for the available bandwidth, thus slowing each other down. The common 2,4GHz bandwidth is also becoming busier due to streaming and the increase in wireless devices that we use at home.

Houses in the Netherlands that are newly built are not affected by competition from neighbouring signals, as they are better insulated against this kind of hindrance. This is due to the use of building materials such as concrete. However, because of the choice of building materials, Wi-Fi coverage inside new-build houses is consequently poor.

In order to increase the Wi-Fi coverage in a new-build house, Wi-Fi boosters can be placed around the house to strengthen the router signal.

Changing the channel

Routers from internet providers tend to be configured to 2,4GHz as devices such as wireless printers also use that bandwidth. To improve the quality of your Wi-Fi connection, Radiocommunications Agency Netherlands advices switching bandwidth channels from 2,4GHz to 5GHz. This bandwidth does not have as much traffic and fewer devices run on it.