Tri-band home wireless routers emerged as a popular home networking product category during 2016. Dual-band wireless broadband routers began the trend to multi-band Wi-Fi networking starting with 802.11n, and tri-band models continue that trend of offering ever greater amounts of total network bandwidth on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands.\r\n\r\nSome consumers may be challenged to justify the premium prices that newer tri-band models carry. Whereas the trend for most consumer electronics is toward lower prices, tri-band routers cost significantly more than did higher end models a few years ago. Look for the prices to come down in the next year as vendor competition increases.\r\n\r\nOr maybe tri-band will quietly fade away in favor of something else. Though vendors might try to introduce models with even higher bandwidth ratings, the diminishing returns of having more network capacity inside a home are already reached for many families.\r\n\r\nMost likely, products that attempt to integrate the functions of a router together with Internet of Things (IoT) gateway support will prove more interesting to the average consumer. Eventually, but probably not within the next year, home gateways that combine Wi-Fi together with 4G or 5G connectivity options could also become very popular.
