Last updated: 21 June 2026
Full-fibre is finally landing across the Borders, and customers in Galashiels are calling us with the same surprised question: "I just got 900Mbps installed and my Wi-Fi still feels exactly the same — did the engineer mess it up?" Almost every time, the engineer did nothing wrong. The fibre line is fine. The problem is everything between the fibre and the device in your hand. This guide explains where the bottleneck actually sits, how to test for it yourself, and what you can do about it without throwing money at the wrong fix.
If you'd rather skip the diagnostics and have someone come out, our networking and Wi-Fi team covers Galashiels and the surrounding Borders towns.
Start by Proving the Fibre Itself Isn't the Problem
Before anything else, run a wired test. Plug a laptop directly into one of the LAN ports on your new router using an Ethernet cable, then run a speed test at fast.com or speedtest.net. If you ordered a 900Mbps service and the wired test shows somewhere around 850–910Mbps down, the fibre is doing exactly what you paid for.
Now repeat the same test over Wi-Fi from the room where you usually sit. If that number is dramatically lower — say 60Mbps, 120Mbps, or 300Mbps — you have a Wi-Fi problem, not a broadband problem. Almost every Galashiels customer we visit shows this pattern. A Borders cottage we surveyed last month was getting 902Mbps wired and 38Mbps on an iPad two rooms away. Same router, same minute, same fibre line.
Wi-Fi Has Always Been a Bottleneck — Fibre Just Made It Obvious
When most homes were on 30–80Mbps broadband, the Wi-Fi side of the router could comfortably hand out the full connection because Wi-Fi could handle that easily. Now that gigabit fibre is here, the maths flip. The fibre can deliver 900Mbps to the back of the router, but the wireless radios on a stock ISP router rarely deliver more than 200–400Mbps to a device in a different room, and that number falls fast through walls. Until fibre arrived, you simply never saw the ceiling — your broadband was the limit. Now your Wi-Fi is.
Your Router's Wi-Fi Standard Matters More Than You Think
Look at the model number on the back of the router your ISP supplied. If it's a few years old, there's a good chance it speaks Wi-Fi 5 (also called 802.11ac). Wi-Fi 5 was a fine standard for ADSL and early fibre, but real-world speeds through a single internal wall are typically 150–300Mbps on a phone. Wi-Fi 6 and 6E routers do considerably better — 400–700Mbps to a modern phone in the same room is normal — and Wi-Fi 7 better again.
The cheaper a new router is, the more likely it's also a "2x2" two-stream unit, which halves what's theoretically possible. If your ISP shipped you a basic bundled router with the install, the radios inside are usually the corner that was cut.
2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz: The Quiet Trap
Modern routers broadcast two networks: a 2.4 GHz band that travels further but is slower and badly congested, and a 5 GHz band that's much faster but doesn't punch through walls as well. Many ISP routers ship with both bands sharing the same name ("band steering") and let the device decide. Phones and laptops often stick stubbornly to 2.4 GHz once connected, even when 5 GHz would be faster.
A quick test: split the two bands into separate Wi-Fi names in the router admin page (something like HouseName-5G and HouseName-2G), connect your phone to the 5 GHz one, and re-run the speed test. If the number jumps from 60Mbps to 300Mbps, you've just found a hidden upgrade sitting in the router's settings.
Borders Stone Walls Eat Wi-Fi for Breakfast
This is the local factor. A lot of housing in Galashiels, Melrose and the surrounding villages is older stone construction, often with thick internal walls and the odd bit of foil-backed insulation in newer extensions. Wi-Fi loses roughly half its signal strength for every solid masonry wall it crosses, and more again on 5 GHz. A router tucked into a stone-walled hallway cupboard near the front door is essentially broadcasting through a small fortress to reach the back bedroom.
Two practical fixes before you spend anything: move the router up off the floor, out of the cupboard, and roughly central in the house if possible; and keep it away from microwaves, baby monitors and other 2.4 GHz noise. We've seen wired-equivalent speeds double on a phone just from those two changes, without any new hardware.
Sometimes the Device Is the Bottleneck, Not the Router
An older laptop with a Wi-Fi 5 card will never see Wi-Fi 6 speeds even from a brand-new router. The same applies to older smart TVs, original Echo Dots, and some cheaper IoT gear that's permanently stuck on 2.4 GHz. If only one device in the house feels slow but the rest are fine, the problem is that device — sometimes a small USB Wi-Fi adapter is all an older laptop needs to catch up. We see this constantly on customers' work-from-home setups across Galashiels and Peebles.
What Usually Actually Works
For most Borders homes that have just gone full-fibre, this is the order we recommend trying:
- Move and elevate the router first — no hardware needed, often the biggest single win.
- Split the bands and force 5 GHz on devices that can use it — settings-only change.
- Replace an old ISP router with a Wi-Fi 6/6E unit if testing shows it really is the radios.
- Add a wired Ethernet run to the room you work in — boring but unbeatable, and a single Cat6 cable to one room can transform a household.
- Look at a small mesh system only if you genuinely need full-house coverage across thick walls — and place the satellites at half-distance, never right next to the main router.
If you replace your router, please don't bin the old one — drop it off for our IT recycling service instead. ISP routers contain lithium-backed clocks, capacitors and a small board's worth of rare metals that shouldn't go in the household waste.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know whether to blame the fibre or the Wi-Fi?
Plug a laptop into the router with an Ethernet cable and run a speed test. If the wired number matches your plan, the fibre is fine and your Wi-Fi is the problem. If the wired number is also low, ring your provider.
Will a Wi-Fi 6 router always solve it?
Not always. A Wi-Fi 6 router helps if your existing one is older or genuinely underpowered, but a single Wi-Fi 6 router in a stone-walled three-bedroom Galashiels house may still struggle to reach a far bedroom. Placement matters as much as the standard.
Do I really need mesh in an average Galashiels house?
Often no. A well-placed single router is enough for a flat or a smaller terraced house. Mesh starts to earn its keep in larger detached houses, anything with extensions, and Borders cottages with thick stone interior walls.
Is a powerline adapter a serious alternative?
Sometimes. In houses where the fuse box and wiring are modern and the run is short, powerline adapters can carry 200–400Mbps reliably. In older Borders properties with multiple ring mains and ancient wiring, results are unpredictable.
Want a Proper Wi-Fi Survey in Galashiels?
If you'd rather just have somebody walk through the house with a signal meter, identify the actual bottleneck, and fix it in one visit, we cover Galashiels, Melrose, Peebles, Kelso and Hawick with our home and office callout service. We'll test the wired line, map the Wi-Fi properly, and only recommend new hardware if the diagnostics actually justify it. Book a callout online and we'll get your gigabit connection feeling like a gigabit connection.