Comcast Takes Larger Stake in Plume.

[thiggins]

The mesh Wi-Fi market is consolidating since the entry of Google and established consumer Wi-Fi makers like NETGEAR and Linksys. So smaller players will need to soon find partners or find themselves with dwindling market share.

Plume seems to have found its dream date in Comcast. Business Insider reports the company has completed a third round of financing, raising $37M more for a total of more than $63M. BI's report says Comcast was a new Plume investor. But Axios' previous report on Plume's second round said Comcast led that round and took a seat on Plume's board.

It's curious that the mesh Wi-Fi product with the lowest throughput delivered to devices would be so interesting to a company like Comcast that wants to deliver HD video throughout any home. But sources have told us it's Plume's mesh software that Comcast is interested in, not its underpowered current hardware.

Either way, Plume seems to be headed for a nice exit from the consumer Wi-Fi mesh market that NETGEAR and Google are handily winning.

 

[Threska49]

Is the WiFi mesh market really that big of a thing over plain WiFi?

 

[Razor512]

It has to be for so many companies to be pushing these devices so hard. I am all for wired APs, but wireless APs tend to have too much overhead, especially if traffic needs to make more than one hop, even with a dedicated wireless backhaul. Furthermore some companies tend to use the mesh buzz word as a reason to take small low end APs, and price each unit we'll above the class of the hardware.

 

[ikjadoon]

Is the WiFi mesh market really that big of a thing over plain WiFi?

If you live in a larger abode, I say yes.

Netgear's implementation is best, IMO. You essentially get whole-house WiFi coverage without halving bandwidth every hop.

Eh, if you live in a small-ish apartment like I did last year, any recent router gets you good coverage. But once you start getting into double/triple-story houses with large square footage (and lots of interior walls), a single router even centrally placed (a headache in of itself) isn't going to get you a strong connection in corner rooms.

For example, my Linksys E4200 couldn't hold a stable connection four interior walls (with two, opposing 90-degree turns into doorways) and a floor down (so I guess 5 walls if you count the floor as a horizontal wall). That's a big ask for a router, IMO.

With the Netgear Orbi setup (just two units), I went from no connection / weak 5 to 8Mbps to a solid 70Mbps - 144 Mbps. For me, a huge increase in "quality of WiFi life".

 

[sfx2000]

Either way, Plume seems to be headed for a nice exit from the consumer Wi-Fi mesh market that NETGEAR and Google are handily winning.

They're on to something - and I suspect the exit is back into silicon space...

 

[thiggins]

Is the WiFi mesh market really that big of a thing over plain WiFi?

Yes. Market share data I've recently seen says the category is gaining share over traditional routers.

As the # of Wi-Fi devices in a home increases to dozens, multiple APs will be necessary to keep up with bandwidth demands. Automatic, intelligent management of networks will also become much more important.

 

[tannebil]

A Plume pod integrated with MoCA 2.0 bonded would be a killer product for Comcast and other cable providers since MoCA is their whole house network of choice.

I use Plume with wired backhaul (including MoCA 2.0 bonded) and have a fast (200-300 Mbps in iperf), stable connection everywhere that I want it in my house. Far better in most rooms than my prior setup which was an ASUS TM-1900 and a last gen Apple AirPort Extreme. The "big" access points only delivered better performance in their "home" rooms.

 

[thiggins]

Wired backhaul is going to make any mesh system perform better. But that is not the primary market for mesh Wi-Fi.

 

[tannebil]

Wireless backhaul is the primary market for mesh systems being sold direct to consumers for self-installation and management. MoCA is still largely a service provider technology, few homes have network wiring, and powerline has turned out to be slower and more twitchy than hoped. Wireless backhaul is all that is left for 95% of the market.

However, if Comcast wants to get into the business of selling whole-house WiFi as a solution, they will be looking for something with different characteristics. They are going to want a multi-AP solution that uses the existing coax cable infrastructure whenever possible, that leverages existing skill sets when new infrastructure has to be installed (their installers know coax), that performs consistently in homes with widely different RF characteristics (no time or money for site surveys or trial and error placement of APs), and that doesn't generate a lot of service calls. A cloud-connected, high-density, MoCA enabled, wireless capable, access point sounds pretty attractive to me.

Plume is already part of the way there so I'd guess that the reason they made an investment was more to influence product direction than as an investment. I'm not even sure that Comcast would care about making it a Comcast-only solution as they have never seen much interest in competing through unique hardware. The money for them is in recurring service revenue and the more services you buy from them, the harder it is to switch.

Are there any other high density mesh solutions being sold into the residential consumer market today? I'd actually like to find one that does wireless, wired, and MoCA backhaul with 3x3 client connections and more proactive roaming. 2x2 is fine for my devices today but I can see it becoming a limiting factor in a few years and I hate being stuck on a good connection when a better one is available.

 

[thiggins]

Are there any other high density mesh solutions being sold into the residential consumer market today? I'd actually like to find one that does wireless, wired, and MoCA backhaul with 3x3 client connections and more proactive roaming.

No, nothing like Plume.

QCA's recent mesh announcement says backhaul aggregation is supported. So, at some point, companies will have another tool in the box to maximize backhaul performance.