Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks


Broadband internet has become a common phenomenon in today’s Indian households. This is because a broadband connection can fulfil almost all your data requirements comfortably. Today, users can get broadband connections of up to 1 Gbps from their local internet service providers (ISPs). Since broadband internet has become common, it is important that users understand what ‘band steering’ is for utilising their Wi-Fi networks in the best manner possible. For the unaware, almost every modern router is equipped with band steering technology. Let’s see what it is and how it affects your internet consumption.
Understanding Band Steering
In very simple words, band steering is the action of your router to intelligently connect the old devices with the 2.4 GHz network and the new devices, which can support ultra-fast speeds with the 5 GHz network.
Note that band steering is only possible on routers with dual-band support; else, there would be no band to steer from in the first place. Since there are multiple devices present at your home that need an internet connection, you need to ensure that your Wi-Fi network doesn’t become congested.
With the arrival of Smart Home products, now even your Bluetooth speakers, Set-Top Boxes, and more require internet connectivity. If all of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, along with other users at your home, are connected to the same Wi-Fi network, it will ruin the internet experience for everyone.
This is where band steering comes to the rescue. Most of the older generation devices can only support connectivity with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi networks. Thus, the router intelligently connects the older generation devices with the 2.4 GHz network and connects the latest generation devices with the 5 GHz network.