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What Wi-Fi speeds can be achieved with the FRITZ!Repeater?

The FRITZ!Repeater increases the Wi-Fi speed at its location by making a further Wi-Fi network available and thus improving the Wi-Fi signal.

Which Wi-Fi speeds can be achieved with the FRITZ!Repeater cannot be answered in general because the speed not only depends on the technical characteristics of the FRITZ!Box (or another router) being used, the FRITZ!Repeater, and the wireless device, but also on the connection quality between the FRITZ!Box and FRITZ!Repeater as well as between the FRITZ!Repeater and wireless device.

Manufacturers state the maximum Wi-Fi speeds that can be achieved as the maximum gross data rates that are technically possible. However, the actual user data rates available for file downloads, video streams, etc., are lower.

In this guide, we tell you which factors determine the gross data rates, which gross data rates you can achieve with the FRITZ!Repeater and your wireless devices, how to determine the user data rates, and what you can do if these data rates are too low.

1 What determines the gross data rate?

The maximum possible speed of a Wi-Fi connection (gross data rate) is determined by the wireless device with the slowest speed and depends on three factors:

  1. the wireless standard (for example Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6),
  2. the number of data streams in MIMO multi-antenna technology (for example 1x1, 4x4),
  3. the channel bandwidth (for example 20 MHz, 160 MHz).

2 Which gross data rates does the FRITZ!Repeater support?

You can find the gross data rates of current FRITZ!Repeater models in the following table. If your FRITZ!Repeater model is not listed here, you can find this information in the chapter "Technical Specifications > Ports and Interfaces" of its manual:

FRITZ!Repeater modelMax. gross data rate
FRITZ!Repeater 6000 2400 Mbit/s (5-GHz II, Wi-Fi 6, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
2400 Mbit/s (5-GHz I, Wi-Fi 6, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
1733 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
800 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 4x4 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 3000 AX ¹ 2400 Mbit/s (5-GHz II, Wi-Fi 6, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
1200 Mbit/s (5-GHz I, Wi-Fi 6, 2x2 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
1733 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
300 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 2x2 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 3000 1733 Mbit/s (5-GHz-II, Wi-Fi 5, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth or 2x2 data streams with 160 MHz channel bandwidth)
866 Mbit/s (5-GHz I, Wi-Fi 5, 2x2 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
400 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 2x2 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 2400 1733 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5, 4x4 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth or 2x2 data streams with 160 MHz channel bandwidth)
600 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 4x4 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 1750E 1300 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5, 3x3 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
450 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 3x3 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 1200 AX
2400 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 6, 2x2 data streams with 160 MHz channel bandwidth)
866 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5, 2x2 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
400 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 2x2 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 1200
866 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5, 2x2 data streams with 80 MHz channel bandwidth)
400 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 2x2 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 600
600 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 4x4 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
FRITZ!Repeater 310
300 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4, 2x2 data streams with 40 MHz channel bandwidth)
¹ Supports 160 MHz Wi-Fi connections

 

3 What determines the user data rate?

The user data rate that can actually be achieved is lower than the gross data rate because this also includes control data and overhead (protocol overhead). Under ideal conditions, the user data rates for Wi-Fi 6 are around 60-65%, for Wi-Fi 5 they are around 50%, and for Wi-Fi 4 they are around 40% of the gross data rates. Since data packets are lost with increasing distance and when sources of interference are present and have to be resent repeatedly, the achievable user data rates are usually lower in practice.

In addition, as with all radio technologies, Wi-Fi is a "shared medium", which means that all devices connected to the Wi-Fi network share the total available data rates.

Example:
The FRITZ!Repeater 6000 is connected to the FRITZ!Box 7590 AX with 2400 Mbit/s gross (Wi-Fi 6) and with a notebook with 866 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 5) and a smartphone with 300 Mbit/s (Wi-Fi 4). This means that user data rates of up to about 430 Mbit/s can be achieved on the notebook or 120 Mbit/s on the smartphone.

4 How can the user data rate be measured?

The easiest way to determine the user data rate and the influence of interference and distance is with FRITZ!App WLAN. For this, start measuring directly next to the FRITZ!Box and then measure again at the location of the FRITZ!Repeater. While it is measuring, FRITZ!App WLAN displays the user data rate of the mobile device that can actually be achieved at the respective location. The speed of the internet connection does not matter.

5 How can the Wi-Fi speed be increased?

Since the FRITZ!Repeater adopts the FRITZ!Box's Wi-Fi settings by default, you do not have to change any of the FRITZ!Repeater's settings. The only way to increase the Wi-Fi speed is to find the best possible location for the FRITZ!Repeater.

However, if the Wi-Fi speed of the connection between your wireless devices and the FRITZ!Repeater is always very low regardless of the location, web pages only load slowly, or video streams stop playing, follow the steps in our guide Slow Wi-Fi connection.