[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"branding":3,"analytics":7,"article-one-third-of-broadband-users-still-on-20-year-old-wi-fi-routers":10,"sections":36},{"siteName":4,"siteTagline":5,"publisherName":4,"contactEmail":6},"The Revision","Tech news, decoded.","editor@therevision.news",{"gaMeasurementId":8,"adsenseClientId":9},"G-ZW2MV82GYR","ca-pub-8533917693782264",{"article":11},{"id":12,"slug":13,"title":14,"dek":15,"body_md":16,"tags_json":17,"published_at":18,"created_at":19,"updated_at":20,"status":21,"review_note":22,"review_notes":23,"image_url":24,"persona_id":22,"persona_name":22,"section":25,"tags":26,"sources":31,"feedback":35,"feedback_at":22,"cost_usd":35,"total_tokens":35},546,"one-third-of-broadband-users-still-on-20-year-old-wi-fi-routers","One in Three Home Routers Predate Modern Wi-Fi","A new report finds roughly a third of home routers run on near-20-year-old Wi-Fi tech, quietly canceling out the broadband upgrades users are paying for.","One in three home Wi-Fi routers are running on technology that's nearly two decades old, a new report finds.\n\nThe report surveyed home networking hardware and found roughly 33 percent of users are still on routers built around Wi-Fi standards from the mid-to-late 2000s. That hardware predates channel bonding, MU-MIMO, and OFDMA — the features modern routers use to juggle dozens of connected devices without collapsing under load. The practical result is congestion, dropped connections, and broadband plans that deliver less than advertised. The bottleneck isn't always the ISP. Sometimes it's a dusty box tucked behind the television.\n\nThe timing is awkward. Carriers and governments have spent heavily on fiber rollouts and last-mile broadband expansion in recent years, but that infrastructure investment stops at the front door. A gigabit fiber connection feeding an aging router still delivers a fraction of those speeds to actual devices. Outdated routers also accumulate unpatched security vulnerabilities over time, since manufacturers typically end firmware support years before users think to replace the hardware.\n\nISPs frequently supply or subsidize the routers their customers use. If a third of the installed base is running antique tech, that's partly a cost the industry quietly passed on to users years ago and never revisited.","[\"wi-fi\",\"broadband\",\"home networking\",\"security\"]","2026-06-09T21:15:00.000Z","2026-06-10T08:08:30.625Z","2026-06-18T08:31:57.962Z","published",null,[],"https:\u002F\u002Fcdn.xyz.onl\u002Farticle-images\u002Fone-third-of-broadband-users-still-on-20-year-old-wi-fi-routers.webp","consumer-tech",[27,28,29,30],"wi-fi","broadband","home networking","security",[32],{"name":33,"url":34},"TechRadar","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.techradar.com\u002Fpro\u002Fmillions-at-risk-1-in-3-users-are-still-stuck-on-wi-fi-routers-using-almost-20-year-old-tech-heres-why-it-matters",0,{"sections":37},[38,43,47,52,57,62,66,71,76,81,86,91,96,101],{"name":39,"slug":40,"count":41,"latest_published_at":42},"AI","ai",2602,"2026-07-18T18:30:00.000Z",{"name":44,"slug":30,"count":45,"latest_published_at":46},"Security",315,"2026-07-17T19:30:00.000Z",{"name":48,"slug":49,"count":50,"latest_published_at":51},"Deals","deals",179,"2026-06-29T20:02:07.000Z",{"name":53,"slug":54,"count":55,"latest_published_at":56},"Policy","policy",169,"2026-07-17T19:49:53.000Z",{"name":58,"slug":59,"count":60,"latest_published_at":61},"Hardware","hardware",126,"2026-07-16T20:09:48.000Z",{"name":63,"slug":25,"count":64,"latest_published_at":65},"Consumer Tech",94,"2026-07-16T16:29:46.000Z",{"name":67,"slug":68,"count":69,"latest_published_at":70},"Software","software",72,"2026-07-17T09:42:05.000Z",{"name":72,"slug":73,"count":74,"latest_published_at":75},"Science","science",66,"2026-07-10T10:29:37.000Z",{"name":77,"slug":78,"count":79,"latest_published_at":80},"Dev Tools","dev-tools",60,"2026-07-16T16:59:13.000Z",{"name":82,"slug":83,"count":84,"latest_published_at":85},"Startups","startups",42,"2026-07-16T16:30:35.000Z",{"name":87,"slug":88,"count":89,"latest_published_at":90},"Gaming","gaming",41,"2026-07-09T04:00:00.000Z",{"name":92,"slug":93,"count":94,"latest_published_at":95},"General","general",29,"2026-07-10T22:28:58.000Z",{"name":97,"slug":98,"count":99,"latest_published_at":100},"Reviews","reviews",20,"2026-06-24T12:00:01.000Z",{"name":102,"slug":103,"count":104,"latest_published_at":105},"How-To","how-to",6,"2026-06-16T09:00:00.000Z"]