Telco Swisscom has deployed the first tri-band Wifi 7 home gateway in Switzerland with SoftAtHome, a French independent software company specialising in broadband, video and analytics.

SoftAtHome’s software powers the Internet-Box 5 Pro, the latest Swisscom home gateway equipped with Wifi 7 technology announced last month (www.swisscom.ch/en/about/news/2024/11/20-telco.html) and the first to hit the Swiss market.

This gateway is now available exclusively for Swisscom fibre customers, marking a leap in delivering Switzerland’s fastest and most reliable home network experience. Internet-Box 5 Pro achieves 18.3Gbit/s of combined WLAN speeds leveraging Wifi 7’s tri-band capabilities across 2.4GHz, 5GHz and the new interference-free 6GHz band.

With improved latency and stability, the gateway is suitable for connected households requiring simultaneous high-speed streaming, gaming and browsing. Its 10Gbit/s Ethernet port ensures users enjoy high wired and wireless connectivity speeds.

SoftAtHome’s software is at the core of Swisscom’s Internet-Box 5 Pro, enabling features and ensuring the device deliversfast speeds and a seamless user experience. SoftAtHome’s expertise in Wifi 7 and connectivity ensures Swisscom users are among the first in Europe to benefit from these innovations.

Wifi 7 introduces tri-band capabilities with multi-link operation (MLO), enabling the aggregation of three frequency bands to deliver high speeds and reduce latency. This ensures a more stable and reliable connection, even in highly connected homes with multiple devices.

SoftAtHome’s embedded software increases the gateway’s 10Gbit/s capabilities, ensuring the Ethernet connection can operate at full capacity. The software dynamically optimises traffic between wired and wireless devices, guaranteeing Swisscom users achieve the promised speeds.

The Internet-Box 5 Pro can reduce power consumption by up to 98% by automatically switching off during periods of inactivity. The device is also built with 65% recycled plastic, and its packaging is fully plastic-free.

Robust device identification simplifies the user experience and includes features such as parental controls and guest networks. SoftAtHome also provides built-in VPN support.

“With the new Internet-Box 5 Pro, Swisscom continues to bring the best wifi products to our end customers,” said Marcel Burgherr, head of home devices at Swisscom. “Thanks to SoftAtHome’s software, the powerful hardware and the introduction of tri-band Wifi 7, the Internet-Box 5 Pro delivers the fastest and most reliable home internet. Leveraging software independence from hardware brings faster time to -market, greater hardware flexibility and unified APIs across generations, streamlining operations and enhancing tools like our mobile app.”

SoftAtHome software supports all five box generations, simplifying maintenance and boosting efficiency.

“Our work with Swisscom on the Internet-Box 5 Pro exemplifies our commitment to delivering the future of home connectivity,” said Arnaud Bellivier de Prin, CEO of SoftAtHome. “Wfi 7 is a game-changer, and we’re thrilled to provide the sustainable software foundation for Swisscom’s 10Gbit/s services, empowering their customers with unmatched speeds and reliability.”

SoftAtHome (www.softathome.com) is an independent software provider covering broadband, wifi, security, smart home, video, analytics and QoE monitoring, and has a gateway app store environment. SoftAtHome’s products power more than 30 million connected homes globally, delivering broadband, wifi and smart-home experiences.

Swisscom (www.swisscom.ch) is the leading ICT company in Switzerland and, with Fastweb, a strong challenger in Italy. The company offers mobile, internet and TV, as well as IT and digital services to private and business customers. It is 51% owned by the Swiss Confederation.