Bluetooth slows Wi-Fi down
QThe increasing use of 2.4 and 5GHz to integrate devices has greatly increased radio traffic
Since upgrading both my iPhone and iPad to iOS 12.4, their Wi-Fi speed has dropped from 36Mbps to less than 1Mbps. Normal speed is restored when I turn their Bluetooth off. How can I restore their Wi-Fi speed without having to do that? byTONY LANGHAM
AThis is most likely to occur when both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are contending for the same 2.4GHz radio frequencies. The issue has probably come to light here because of the increasing use of both wireless modes to integrate iOS devices and Macs, which has greatly increased local radio traffic.
One quick trick you can try is to turn off an iOS device, and move it to a point out of range of any other Bluetooth devices, but well within your Wi-Fi range. Turn it on again there and it should enjoy full speed Wi-Fi connections again.
Configure your Wi-Fi router so that its 2.4GHz and 5GHz services have slightly different names, but common password and other details. Then in Settings on each iOS device, go to Wi-Fi to configure this ‘new’ 5GHz network, and enable it. You can then disable the old 2.4GHz network, keeping that in reserve in case of problems with your router. This should restore your previous Wi-Fi performance, and shouldn’t suffer any significant radio interference. However, if this doesn’t solve your problem, you will need to look for other sources of interference which might have coincidentally started.
There are other free tools available which can help with this, such as Ofcom’s Mobile And Broadband Checker, and Fing – both of which are available from the App Store.