Rogers charging $25/mo for Wi-Fi 7 equipment, better tech support

After rolling out Wi-Fi 7 in different parts of the country, Rogers is now offering it to everyone, but you'll have to pay an extra $25 per month.

This is part of the telecommunications company's new program.Xfinity Proplan that includes Wi-Fi 7 hardware, small battery backup, updated technical support, and professional installation. This installation includes Wi-Fi extenders if needed, and the technician will try to install everything to best suit your home. This is usually a paid service at Rogers, but not at all other telecommunications companies. If you install yourself using Rogers, there are no installation fees.

This new modem is called the Xfinity Gateway (Gen 4) modem. Some users in regions where Wi-Fi 7 was launched earlier may have access to Wi-Fi 7 through other equipment, such as a Rogers Xfinity router, or some 5G home internet plans in Quebec and a small presence in Calgary. Others will now have to pay a premium for it.

Looking at the carrier's homepage as I write this, only its most expensive plan, at $120, includes Wi-Fi 7 hardware at no additional cost. However, when I enter my address, the prices change slightly to make it seem like I'm getting a deal (the top plan doesn't change the download speed, but the price goes up to $150 and is now “on sale” for $120). Adding my address also removes the wording describing which modem comes with which plan, making the situation even more confusing.

When I first started working on this story last week, it seemed like almost any internet plan could be upgraded to Xfinity Pro during checkout. However, at some point during my conversation with Rogers, the company removed this option from all addresses I checked in Toronto. Now, it looks like you'll have to call the company to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7/Xfinity Pro, which makes advertising a $120 plan on its website that comes with Wi-Fi 7 downright weird.

An argument can be made that you need high-end home networks to access Wi-Fi 7 hardware, but the plans offered at the places I checked also cost $120 and provide 2Gbps download speeds, which should be enough to justify the benefits of an upgraded modem. Honestly, I think everyone should just be on modern hardware, but even Wi-Fi 6 and 6E are more than enough for most people.

For most people, Rogers Wifi 6 or 6E modems should be more than enough.

Taking a step back, I don't think most people will need Wi-Fi 7 over 6E anytime soon, but it seems odd to me to charge for this upgrade and bundle it with a bunch of other things that used to be free years ago, like installation and good customer support. However, since Rogers terminated his contract with Foundever, which led to the layoffs of about 900 call center workersI saw increase in the number of people complaining about carrier support. Perhaps this improved support bonus is more valuable than it should be.

In fact, the most interesting part of this subscription, although I'm not sure it's worth $25 a month, is the cellular/battery backup system. This is quite impressive, but has some limitations. The fine print on Rogers' website reads: “Storm-Ready WiFi requires access to the Rogers LTE cellular network and [the] The backup battery provides up to 4 hours of operation. Rogers Voice home phone service is not supported during a backup connection, internet speeds up to 30 Mbps download and 7 Mbps upload (up to 10/2 Mbps after 500GB), and anytime video streaming up to 3 Mbps download speed per stream. »

Roger Support Page says it will be a standalone device using a 5G connection. It will also work as a Wi-Fi extender in your home. As cool as it is, being connected to 5G doesn't make it any more powerful than your mobile hotspot. I'm not sure it's worth the flat rate of $25/month. Especially when you consider that most people only suffer one or two short power outages per year. I expect it to be convenient in remote parts of the country, but I also don't expect those areas to have super-fast internet, which negates the need for the Wi-Fi 7 aspect of this subscription.

Overall, this seems like a reasonably limited subscription for most, and if you really need Wi-Fi 7, I recommend buying your own modem and mesh Wi-Fi system to avoid using options that the carrier is trying to rent you.

Source: Rogers

Update 4/11/25 5:13 PM ET: This story has been updated to clarify that first Wi-Fi 7 offers What Rogers launched in the last few months Wi-Fi 7 uses different hardware than the new Gen 4 gateway included in Xfinity Pro.