Most smart home IoT devices only support 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi with 802.11n, creating a bottleneck that degrades the entire home network

The vast majority of smart home devices — smart plugs, bulbs, cameras, sensors, doorbells — only connect via the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band using older 802.11b/g/n protocols. They cannot use 5 GHz or 6 GHz bands, and they cannot take advantage of Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 airtime efficiency features. A home with 30-50 IoT devices (not unusual for an enthusiast) creates severe congestion on the 2.4 GHz band because every device competes for airtime on just three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, and 11). This matters because the 2.4 GHz band is already the most congested radio spectrum in residential areas. It is shared with Bluetooth devices, baby monitors, cordless phones, microwave ovens, and every neighbor's router. When dozens of IoT devices pile onto this band, the 'airtime fairness' feature on modern routers actually makes things worse: the router gives equal airtime to a slow IoT bulb sending 10 bytes as it does to a laptop streaming 4K video, dragging down throughput for every device. Homeowners experience this as video calls dropping, streaming buffering, and web pages loading slowly — and they have no idea that their 40 smart bulbs are the cause. The typical response is to buy a more expensive router, which does not fix the fundamental problem of channel congestion. This problem persists because IoT manufacturers optimize for the cheapest possible radio chip. A 2.4 GHz 802.11n radio costs pennies. Adding 5 GHz or Wi-Fi 6 support increases the bill of materials, power consumption, and certification costs. Since the device 'works' on 2.4 GHz in a test lab with 3 devices, the manufacturer has no incentive to spend more. The cost is externalized to the consumer, who discovers the problem only after buying 30+ devices. Protocols like Thread and Zigbee solve this by using separate radio bands (802.15.4), but adoption is slow because they require a hub, adding another $50-$150 purchase before the user can even start.