within the home or residential and urban environment, any band under 6.9ghz has sexcellent multipath and diffraction propagation characteristics that are consistent with ultra high frequencies (uhf) and lower super high frequencies (shf) as the application or radio protocol (wifi) is not covering long distances (up to 69m from a home modem). once it goes beyond 6.9ghz, propagation is mitigated and attenuated by water droplets, rain, trees, walls and other obstruction. at ehf (30ghz and beyond) it becums almost like a laser beam with poor diffractive, refractive, and penetration qualities. rather, it becums reflective when it hits a flat surface. while 2.4ghz gives you longer ranges than 5ghz, a wifi bubble at 2.4ghz is limited anyway by power and thus range as it’s treated as a license-free spectrum with myriads of other applications in a residential or even commercial setting that can cause interference: garage door openers, microwave ovens, appliances, security cams and devices, sensors, etc. there are less of these legacy devices and appliances on 5ghz.
moreover, there are less channels at the 2.4ghz band (14) compared to 5ghz (42), thus bandwidth on 5ghz is more than double that of 2.4ghz. new wifi modems these days use dual bands (2.4ghz and 5ghz) simultaneously thus a user can benefit from both: more channels to avoid interference with neighbors, 2.4ghz for large yard or property coverage including swimming pool and lawn area, 5ghz for indoor coverage. for me, i walk out the door or garage and still have 5ghz wifi coverage; i walk upto 69m away from home and i still have 2.4ghz wifi. after 69m i have to rely on 4g and 5g mobile coverage.
in sg, unless you live in one of those ridout mansions, you don’t have to worry about a seamless 2.4ghz wifi, 5ghz wifi, 900mhz lte, 1800mhz lte, 3.6ghz 5g sexperience. anytime in a small landed property, condo or hdb flat, dual band 2.4ghz 5 ghz is adequate for the best wifi coverage. wifi signal aside, the internet provider (via fiber) and streaming service have to have sufficient capacities in session binding between home router and data center (plus client to server at the app layer) to provide smooth service. otherwise, signal good but internet connection sucks, like netflix during dinner.
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