Google’s first consumer WiFi router is now available for pre-order for $129… or you can buy a 3-pack for $299.
The reason you might want to consider buying more than a single router is that Google WiFi uses mesh networking to provide better coverage across your home. If you live in a studio apartment, one device is probably more than enough. But if you’re in a 4,500 square foot, multi-story house, Google WiFi is the latest in a series of mesh networking products that have launched this year designed to help blanket your home with wireless internet coverage.
Google WiFi is up for pre-order from the Google Store, Amazon, and Best Buy, and it should begin shipping in December.
Today’s launch comes a day after Google WiFi showed up at the FCC website and about a month and a half after Google introduced the product.
The router supports 802.11ac dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 ZigBee wireless protocols, and uses 802.11s for mesh networking, so that you only need to plug a single device into your modem, but each Google WiFi router placed through your house will pick up the signal and amplify it to cover more territory.
You can use a smartphone app to set up and manage your network, much the way you could with Google’s app for OnHub routers from TP-Link and Asus… which was the strategy Google was taking last year, before the company decided to just build and sell its own routers.