I'm sure most of us are aware that major ISPs are scammers, but I recently encountered something particularly egregious: enter Fios Self-Organizing Network (SON).

I recently built a PC for my friend, and network speed tests on the computer were showing 20 mbps download and upload. Surely this couldn't be the fault of my expert PC building skills, so I (correctly) pointed fingers at their Fios wifi router.

I'm not very familiar with the features of modern Fios deployments, and was suprised when I noticed only one SSID being broadcast, when the router clearly stated it supported three separate bands (2.4, two 5 GHz). Browsing the router's settings, I noticed the SON feature. Verizon states "Self-Organizing Networks significantly improve Wi-Fi performance by automatically identifying and fixing Wi-Fi problems. Connected devices will move seamlessly between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi signals..." Enemy spotted. This seems like a cool feature, but in using it you trust Verizon to have implemented it well. I'm not really a networking guy, but to me this seems like a hard problem that's difficult to get right, and even more difficult if you are Verizon.

This feature collapses the bands and only shows one SSID, so that cleared my confusion on that front. I looked at the wifi connection details on the PC and it was connected to the 2.4 GHz band. Superior Verizon network engineering at its finest. From what I understand, the 2.4GHz band is inferior to the 5GHz band in basically every way, since it provides less channels for devices to communicate on. In a house with a lot of devices, they constantly fight for the limited number of channels creating interference and slowdowns.

So after I turned it off, the three SSIDs were displayed and after connecting the PC to a 5GHz band, speeds increased to over 200 mbps.

It bothers me that this option is on by default. Sure it makes network management simpler, users only have to select one network to connect to. But if simple means slower, it's just not worth it.

If you live in a space with not many devices, you probably will never encounter drastic speed disparities like this and leaving the setting on is fine. Either way that's my PSA.