18 years of FRITZ!Box: from the birth of the home network to the fastest FRITZ!Box with 10 Gbit/s

To mark the FRITZ!Box's 18th birthday, AVM takes a look back at five milestones in FRITZ!Box history since the router was unveiled in 2004. With FRITZ!Box, many millions of households go online every day – via DSL, fiber optics, cable or mobile. The FRITZ!Box takes care of all central tasks in digital life at home. These include secure internet access, streaming and IPTV, telephony, Wi-Fi for multiple devices, as well as Smart Home, gaming, video conferencing and much more. Additional devices can be conveniently integrated into the home network via the LAN and USB ports. The FRITZ!Box software, the FRITZ!OS, is continuously updated by AVM, bringing new free features and keeping the FRITZ!Box up to date. Millions of FRITZ!Box models are in use in over 40 countries.

2004 – the first FRITZ!Box – home networking with just one device

With the launch of the first FRITZ!Box in March 2004, the home network was born: connecting multiple devices to the internet at the same time via a "modem router" – this was a revolution in the network industry 18 years ago. With a USB port – at that time common for networking – and two LAN ports, the first FRITZ!Box opened up completely new possibilities for the networked home with a DSL connection. In the fall of 2004, AVM also integrated telephony and Wi-Fi. This all-in-one approach from 2004 continues to set the standard in home networking today. 

With DSL, up to 1 gigabit per second is currently possible with providers that support G.fast technology. That's 125 times the initial 8 megabits per second in 2004. Today, DSL tariffs with up to 250 Mbit/s are standard in DSL networks, and many dozens of devices can be networked at home via Wi-Fi and LAN.

2010 – FRITZ!Box for cable internet – TV streaming included

The FRITZ!Box Cable models have been getting high-speed internet from coaxial cable lines since 2010. In 2010, speeds of 20 to 30 Mbit/s were the norm in cable networks. Today, cable networks are 50 times faster at 1 gigabit per second. The current flagship, the FRITZ!Box 6690 Cable, is even prepared for speeds of up to 6 Gbit/s. And there's an extra innovation for all cable TV viewers: FRITZ!Box streams up to four TV channels simultaneously via Wi-Fi to mobile devices.

2011 – FRITZ!Box in the mobile home network

The FRITZ!Box has also been at home in mobile networks for over 10 years. It all started with 100 Mbit/s for LTE/4G; since then, LTE and 5G rates of up to 300 Mbit/s have become standard in mobile networks, and speeds of over 1 Gbit/s are already available at peak rates. Those who don't have DSL, cable or fiber optics can get FRITZ! convenience from the air; Fast internet, powerful Wi-Fi, telephony and home networking are all included. With the FRITZ!Box 6850 5G, up to 1.3 Gbit/s can be achieved via 5G.

2018 – FRITZ!Box becomes the Mesh Master – stable Wi-Fi everywhere

Wi-Fi is the technology that enables all notebooks, tablets, game consoles etc. to access the internet wirelessly. The FRITZ!Box, together with FRITZ! Mesh repeaters, brings Wi-Fi to every corner of the home. To ensure it all works smoothly and without the user having to do anything, AVM has been using Mesh since 2018. With this technology, the FRITZ!Box as the master ensures that all devices always get the best connection. The first FRITZ!Box started in 2004 with 54 Mbit/s in the 802.11g wireless standard, also known as Wi-Fi 3. Today, the devices use the Wi-Fi 6 standard. Current models such as the FRITZ!Box 6690 Cable can transfer data to mobile devices at speeds of up to 6 Gbits per second.

2022 – the fastest FRITZ!Box ever with up to 10 Gbit/s via fiber optics

Fiber is the medium of the future for broadband internet. With the newly launched FRITZ!Box 5590 Fiber, users can bring fast fiber optic internet of up to 10 gigabits per second into their homes. This speed can be distributed throughout the home via powerful Wi-Fi as well as LAN for several gigabits. With the new FRITZ!Box 5590 Fiber, AVM is ready for the momentum of the next few years.