Canada’s ‘Big 3’ internet providers (Rogers, Telus and Bell of course) are starting to compete more directly for the same customers, and a new Opensignal report suggests the Wi-Fi equipment inside your home is becoming a big part of that battle.
Fiber and cable networks now make up about 83 percent of broadband connections in Canada. With the CRTC opening up wholesale access to fiber lines outside an ISP’s core network, providers can increasingly sell service over the same physical infrastructure. That shift means speed alone matters less, and in-home Wi-Fi performance matters more.
Opensignal looked at how ISP-provided gateways compare with bring-your-own routers bought by customers in their latest study. The conclusion? Customers using gateways supplied by their internet provider had a more consistent broadband experience across all three national ISPs. Take this for what it’s worth.
Bring your own devices refer to Wi-Fi equipment that customers buy themselves from a third party, rather than using hardware supplied by their internet provider (such as Amazon’s eero mesh Wi-Fi routers on sale right now). These setups typically connect to the ISP’s modem, such as a personal router running in bridge mode or a separate access point used to distribute Wi-Fi in the home. Using this setup usually involves more work to get it up and running and is usually not done by the average non-techy person (imagine trying to explain to grandma to log into the modem admin panel to enable bridge mode).
On average, ISP-provided equipment delivered at least a 12 percentage point improvement in consistent quality compared to third-party routers. Bell saw the biggest gap. Bell customers using Bell-supplied gateways performed 17.5 percentage points better than those using their own equipment. Telus and Rogers also saw solid gains, at 13.5 and 12.7 percentage points.
The report points to newer Wi-Fi technology as a major reason. Homes using Wi-Fi 6 or newer generally had better results than those on older standards. Rogers had the highest share of customers using Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 hardware, while Bell stood out for how often its customers connected using the faster and less congested 5 GHz band. That matters because 5 GHz connections usually deliver higher speeds and more stable performance than the crowded 2.4 GHz band, especially in dense neighbourhoods.
Over the past few years, Rogers, Telus, and Bell have all invested heavily in new gateway hardware, rolling out Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 equipment and adding features like whole-home optimization and professional installation. Rogers announced Wi-Fi 7 gear first last summer, followed by Telus and then Bell, all like clockwork.
Opensignal says this investment is paying off. As more Canadians can choose between providers using the same last-mile networks, the quality of the Wi-Fi box in the home is becoming a key factor in how good the internet feels day to day.
For consumers, the takeaway is simple, according to Opensignal. Using the gateway provided by your ISP is more likely to deliver a better overall experience than relying on a third-party router, especially as networks continue to overlap and competition tightens.
What’s your experience with using your internet provider’s Wi-Fi hardware versus setting up your own in bridge mode?
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I switched from Rogers (500mb) to Bell (1.5gb). It was a terrible experience from the start. Weak signals, compared to Roger’s strong signal. I even connected directly to the router and still was getting only 700mb speeds. The Bell router was in the same spot as Roger’s, with tons of calls to support, I had to cancel and get Roger’s again. Instantly ai got incredible speeds, no weak signals and plenty of coverage in my home with just the router and no additional access points.
So you should have gotten a buddy to help you? 700 is faster than 500. I guess you never tried connecting to the Bell with ethernet?
It soundly like you should have got a third party wifi 6e router and connected then with an ethernet cable.
I have telus fiber. Fortunately, a previous owner wired the house for ethernet so i have my telus router in a closet and connected to the ethernet network. In my office, I have a wifi 6e router and some of my computers are connected by gigabit ethernet to that router. My living room tv is connected by ethernet from the telus router. I get 928 up and down on ethernet and around 728 from wifi. If you want faster, get a wifi 7 router and fiber again but get some help.
This article is bad advice. If you have fiber, test it over ethernet. Then if the speed is good and solid, buy a good third party wifi 6e or wifi 7 router and connect it to the isp supplied equipment by ethernet cable. You don’t need to bridge them.
Why would I run two routers exactly?