- MyRepublic
If you live in a landed house, multi‑storey home, or penthouse in Singapore, this probably sounds familiar:
Your fibre plan is fast. Very fast. Speed test beside the router shows ridiculous numbers. But once you move upstairs, go to the far bedroom, or sit in the study… suddenly your Wi‑Fi feels like it’s running on kopi break.
So what gives?
Here’s the thing most people don’t realise: fast fibre doesn’t automatically mean good Wi‑Fi. Especially in large homes. And no, buying an even more expensive router doesn’t always fix it.
Let’s break it down.
Why Fast Fibre Broadband ≠ Good Wi‑Fi
In Singapore, upgrading fibre is easy. You go from 1Gbps to 10Gbps, feel shiok for about five minutes… then realise half your house still has spotty Wi‑Fi.
That’s because your fibre broadband speed and Wi‑Fi coverage are two different problems.
Think of it like this: fibre is the main water pipe coming into your house, while Wi‑Fi is the sprinkler system inside your home. You might have the best water pressure in the world (or Singapore’s #1 Favourite Broadband), but if your sprinklers don’t reach certain corners, those areas still stay dry.
That’s why speed tests near the router look amazing, but streaming buffers upstairs, video calls drop in the study, and smart home devices randomly disconnect. Upgrading fibre increases potential speed. It doesn’t magically redesign how Wi‑Fi moves through walls, floors, and rooms.
Common Wi‑Fi Pain Points in Large Homes
Large homes come with their own Wi‑Fi personality. More often than not, it’s not a friendly one.
Multi‑Storey Homes
In multi‑storey homes, Wi‑Fi often performs well on the floor where the router sits, then slowly falls apart as you move up. Floors and ceilings weaken signal strength, staircases create awkward blind spots, and upstairs rooms become dead zones. One router trying to serve multiple levels is like shouting from the ground floor and hoping everyone upstairs hears you clearly
Landed Properties
Landed homes tend to stretch Wi‑Fi horizontally instead of vertically. Long layouts, thick or reinforced walls, and outdoor spaces mean signals have to travel further and push through more obstacles. That’s why it’s common to get decent Wi‑Fi near the front of the house, only for it to disappear completely at the backyard or upper rooms. Most routers are designed for apartments, not houses with long corridors and gardens. Between a single router and physics, physics wins every time.
Penthouses & Large Apartments
Even when the total size isn’t massive, penthouses and large apartments can still be Wi‑Fi nightmares. Split levels, odd layouts, and reinforced walls create unpredictable coverage, where one room works perfectly and the next feels completely cursed. Sometimes, all it takes is one awkward corner to throw the whole network off balance.
Why Wi‑Fi Gets Worse as Homes Get Smarter
Large homes today aren’t just big. They’re smart. And they’re busy.
A typical large household may now have multiple TVs streaming at the same time, laptops on video calls, kids on tablets, gaming consoles downloading updates, and a growing list of smart devices quietly using the network in the background. Doorbells, security cameras, smart lights, air‑cons, smart refrigerators, voice assistants, and more. These are devices that are connected, all the time.
Individually, each device doesn’t use much bandwidth. But together, they place constant demand on your Wi‑Fi. Even if the signal technically reaches every corner, performance can still feel unstable because too many devices are competing for airtime.
This is why Wi‑Fi problems often feel random. One moment everything works, the next moment video calls stutter or streams drop in quality. Your Wi‑Fi didn’t suddenly get worse. Your home just got smarter, and your network wasn’t designed for this level of load across a large space.
Does Wi‑Fi Placement Matter more than Wi‑Fi Power?
When Wi‑Fi coverage is bad, many people assume the solution is simple: buy a more powerful router. Bigger antennas, higher specs, higher price equals problem solved. Except, in large homes, it may not be the case.
Wi‑Fi isn’t just about how strong the signal is. It’s about where that signal starts from.
Most routers end up placed wherever the fibre point happens to be, which may not necessarily be the most optimal location. Routers are often found tucked into a corner, hidden inside a cabinet, or near the entrance of the house. From there, the Wi‑Fi signal has to travel through walls, floors, staircases, and furniture before it reaches the rest of the home. No matter how powerful the router is, there are still limitations.
This is why blasting more power often doesn’t help. Stronger signals or faster speeds don’t bend around corners or move cleanly through reinforced walls. In some cases, pushing power too hard can even create more interference and unstable connections.
When Routers & Mesh Wi‑Fi Hit Real Limits
“Add mesh, can already.”
Sometimes, that works. But in large homes, routers and mesh setups hit physical limits.
Why routers struggle
Most routers are built with typical apartment sizes in mind. Once signals have to punch through multiple walls and floors, performance drops fast. This is especially true when the router is forced into one corner of the house where the fibre point just happens to be.
Why Mesh Wi-Fi isn’t a magic cure
Mesh systems do help extend coverage, but they still have real‑world constraints. Poor node placement leads to poor results, wireless backhaul can bottleneck performance, and adding too many nodes can actually cause interference instead of improving things.
That’s how people end up with three or four mesh nodes scattered around the house — and still inconsistent speeds, still unstable connections, and still one or two rooms with practically no Wi‑Fi at all. More boxes doesn’t automatically mean better Wi‑Fi.
What “Custom Wi‑Fi Planning” Actually Means
This is where custom Wi‑Fi comes in.
Instead of treating Wi‑Fi as a plug‑and‑play gadget, custom Wi‑Fi is a fully designed system.
At a high level, custom Wi‑Fi planning means understanding the home’s layout, planning coverage floor by floor and zone by zone, and placing access points exactly where signal is needed. It replaces guessing, trial‑and‑error, and the classic “let’s add one more node and hope for the best” approach with proper design.
For large homes, Wi‑Fi works best when it’s planned from the start, balanced across the entire house, and designed around how people actually live, work, game, and stream on their devices.
Good Wi‑Fi works the same way good air‑conditioning or good sound systems do: placement matters. It’s less like buying a louder speaker, and more like installing a proper sound system for the entire house. When access points are positioned closer to where people actually use Wi‑Fi, coverage becomes more even and performance more consistent.
What Usually Happens in Large Homes (A Familiar Story)
We see this pattern a lot in Singapore, especially in landed and multi-storey homes.
You may have just upgraded to a fast fibre plan with a decent router downstairs. Wi-Fi is great in the living room, so everything seems fine. Over time, you notice a weaker signal in upstairs rooms, calls dropping during work meetings, videos buffering in bedrooms, and gaming latency spikes at night.
You may decide to add mesh. Then another node. Then maybe one more. Coverage improves a bit, but performance stays inconsistent. Some rooms work, others don’t, and the experience still feels unreliable.
The issue isn’t speed, and it isn’t effort. It’s that the Wi-Fi was never designed around the home’s layout in the first place. Without proper planning, even good hardware ends up fighting the house instead of working with it.
Who is Custom Wi-Fi For (and Who Doesn’t Need It)
Let’s be clear. Custom Wi‑Fi isn’t for everyone.
Custom Wi‑Fi Makes Sense If You:
- Live in a landed property, duplex, or penthouse
- Have multiple storeys or a very large floor area
- Expect strong, stable Wi‑Fi everywhere. Not just near the router
- Use Wi‑Fi heavily across work, gaming, streaming, and smart devices
You Probably Don’t Need This If You:
- Live in a standard HDB or small condo
- Only have minor Wi‑Fi issues
- Are already well served by a single router or basic mesh
And that’s okay. Overkill Wi‑Fi is still overkill.
What is HaloHome
HaloHome is MyRepublic’s custom Wi‑Fi solution designed specifically for large and complex homes, engineered to deliver peak performance in every corner of your home.
- Fast fibre alone isn’t enough for big houses
- Routers and mesh setups have limits
- Some homes need planning, not more hardware
HaloHome isn’t meant to replace standard broadband plans. It’s meant for homes where normal setups simply can’t deliver consistent Wi‑Fi, regardless of how fast the fibre is.
⚡ TL;DR
- Fast fibre doesn’t guarantee good Wi‑Fi
- Large homes create unique Wi‑Fi challenges
- Routers and mesh setups have real limits
- Custom Wi‑Fi planning solves layout‑based problems
- HaloHome is built for homes where standard Wi‑Fi falls short
So… What Should You Do Next?
If you’re living in a large or multi‑storey home and constantly fighting Wi‑Fi issues, the takeaway here isn’t “buy more gear”. It’s to pause and reassess the setup.
If your Wi‑Fi problems are minor or limited to one room, a better router or basic mesh system may be all you need. If dead zones, unstable connections, or upstairs issues keep coming back no matter what you try, it’s usually a sign that the network was never designed for the home in the first place.
That’s where a custom Wi‑Fi approach like HaloHome makes sense. It’s not an upgrade for everyone, but a purpose‑built solution for homes where standard setups have already hit their limits.
If this article felt familiar, it might be time to stop guessing and start planning.
Find out if HaloHome is right for your home and see how a professionally planned Wi‑Fi setup can make the difference.
