Huawei doesn’t just make smartphones and laptops; it’s also getting into mesh Wi-Fi. Yesterday at CES, the China-based company announced a hybrid whole-home Wi-Fi system.
Like other mesh Wi-Fi systems, Huawei’s Wi-Fi Q2 system aims to send a stable signal through a large home or an estate. There are two options: a base and two satellites, which would rely on G.hn PLC technology to deliver gigabit data over electrical, telephone, and coaxial wiring, or a hybrid three-pack, which relies on both wired and wireless connections.
Huawei claims that installation can be completed within five steps, and that the Wi-Fi Q2 system can provide connection speeds of up to 1867 Mbps, which is a pretty wild number considering that the average global internet speed is around 10–20 Mbps. If the claim is true, and if your home internet has the bandwidth to handle it, then that would be an extremely fast connection. The switching time between satellites is supposedly a fast 100 ms. Huawei also says that its Q2 system can support up to 192 connected devices simultaneously and up to 16 hot spots, so users can add additional satellites to expand coverage.
The company also added a security algorithm to prevent against brute force attacks to the network, along with Wi-Fi encryption and password protection. For all those fancy features, it’s charging $349.99 for a hybrid three-pack, and $219.99 for one base unit and two satellites, as reported by CNET.