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Forum Discussion
Are There More Channel Options for Orbi RBR850?
Is there a way to select more 5GHz channels on the Orbi RBR850 system? Both for the client network, AND for the router-to-satellite backbone network? We would like more options to choose lower and ...
Alas, no. Regulating agencies in various countries (FCC in the US) have designated which channels can be used for specific purposes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels
Although the 5G band provides lots of bandwidth, there are only two groups of adjacent channels that can be grouped to form an 80mb wide channel: 36 to 48 and 149 to 161. All of the remaining channels are either "reserved" or are also used by military and weather radar and systems that use them must constantly monitor for radar signals and "move somewhere else" if radar is detected.
This is a disappointment (to me) similar to the original 2.4G WiFi that announced 11 "channels" (13 in much of the world) but failed to point out that every channel interferes with channels on either side to the point that there are actually only three channels that do not overlap (1,6,11) In some ways, it's a miracle that WiFi works at all.
The new 6G band has some very wide and non-overlapping channels. That higher frequency will suffer even more than 5G with distance and building materials and there are only a couple of devices on the market which can even use the 6G band. Interestingly, Netgear chose no stick with 5G for the Orbi backhaul in the newest "four band" Orbi (selling at $1,500 for a two pack), I suspect because of the limited range of 6G signals.