Telstra Smart Wi-fi Booster
Verified28 reviews
I reside in a three-storey home constructed on a hillside. At my previous address, I was connected via Fibre to the Node (FTTN) with copper to the premises through Telstra. The service was consistently fast, stable, and reliable. Since relocating, my connection has been upgraded to Hybrid Fibre Coaxial (HFC). Unfortunately, this service has proven… Read more
to be significantly inferior to my previous connection, with ongoing reliability issues and frequent service dropouts. Over the past 12 months, both Telstra and NBN technicians have attended my premises multiple times to investigate these issues. During the most recent visit, Telstra advised that the cause of the problem was the size and layout of my home, stating that the Gen 4 Wi-Fi modem was insufficient for the number of levels. To clarify, the property consists of four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and two living areas. While it spans three levels, this is due solely to the hillside construction and does not reflect an unusually large footprint compared to standard residential properties. Following Telstra’s recommendations, I purchased a Wi-Fi Booster to improve coverage. When this failed to resolve the issue, Telstra supplied a second, and later a third, booster. While the system operated acceptably for a few months, the problems have since returned. Currently, the boosters fail almost weekly and require frequent hard resets to restore functionality. Each time I contact Telstra support, the issue is attributed to external factors—such as the NBN network, the house structure, or even neighbouring interference—rather than the supplied hardware or service itself.
Technical Context
HFC (Hybrid Fibre Coaxial) uses a mix of fibre and legacy cable network infrastructure, which can be more susceptible to congestion and signal degradation, particularly during peak usage times. In contrast, FTTN connections, while still using copper for the final segment, can sometimes deliver more stable performance depending on node distance and network load. Wi-Fi performance is also highly dependent on modem quality and mesh system reliability. Standard ISP-supplied routers (such as Telstra’s Gen 4 modem) are often entry-to-mid-level devices that may struggle in multi-level homes without a robust mesh network solution. Wi-Fi boosters (extenders) can introduce additional points of failure, especially if signal overlap and backhaul quality are not properly managed.
Conclusion Based on my experience, the issues stem from a combination of:
Poor performance and reliability of the supplied Gen 4 Wi-Fi modem Ongoing instability of the Wi-Fi boosters Inadequate resolution and accountability from Telstra support
Given these ongoing problems and the lack of a satisfactory solution, I have decided not to continue with Telstra, as I am no longer under contract. I will be seeking an alternative provider capable of delivering a reliable and high-quality internet service that meets expected standards.
One of the most useless products I've ever had the idea of buying from telstra. It does literally nothing to boost the wifi in my house, the piece of equipment is always dying on me after about 4months of use, so I have to order a replacement. Then I've even gotten myself locked into a 2year contract with the dogs to pay off said equipment. It's one big scam and I like many others fell for this trash with its fake promises and hidden t&c's. Show details
Simple to setup and seems to work OK. But for the price I can get much better quality and performance from the many other brands. Even a Unifi mesh access point is cheaper and much better quality than this. Show details
Telstra Smart Wi-fi Booster - Known product failurs – Absolute rubbish. Only last 18 months before breaking down. Have had 4 now, many troubles with Telstra to honour the product warrany. Telstra tell me this is a known issue but keep selling it. Scam?Never again. Show details
Worst Extender – ABSOLUTE WORST. Worst part is after 1 month of having it you cannot return it so you will lose all your money as well and be stuck with it. I am a Telstra employee as well and they didn't even help me out. Don't waste your time with these they are garbage
Beyond Terrible, How Can I Give Negative Stars? – WiFi is utterly terrible, I have 2 boosters and a large house Boosters drop out ALL the time!! Devices are continually slow or drop out Telstra do not care Telstra tecnicians cannot fix Have tried aboslutely everything Telatra EasyMesh is an absolute joke and never worked Save your money, better yet just change your ISP Show details
A waste of time and money – I purchase one Gen 3 booster but had trouble right from the start. My smart devices kept losing connection. Also, the range wasn’t good downstairs do Telstra sent me a second booster. More problems - even tho the light was solid blue, nothing would connect. I had a Telstra technician come and he spent an hour getting it to work. Two hours after… Read more
he left, the boosters failed again. Finally, after three complaints, I asked to send them back. Had to pay out the contract, but they did refund the amount I had already paid. Now I have set up an old gen2 router as an AP point - best wifi I’ve had for several years.
It’s a dud! – These boosters are useless. I have three and they all keep dropping out, absolutely hopeless. Show details
Didn't work and no support – It didn't work and when I contacted them they keep saying they sent me a smart modem. So no help from support now trying to return it. Refered to 4 people so far and still waiti g for help it has been nealy 5 hours trting to sort out. So never again for me Show details
Great Booster – This wifi booster does a pretty good job in boosting the signal for your wifi, I was getting a weak signal upstairs in one of the bedrooms after setting this up im getting full bars. I found it works best when you connect to the 5ghz network.
Keeps dropping connection and did not improve my NBN service – I had fluctuating speed between 70 and 100 before purchasing booster. Wanted more steady speed. As soon as I added Telstra Booster to my wifi network lots of drop off in internet. Contacted Telstra support, was asked to check speed in every room in the house and report it back to them. Was around 70. Totally ignored my point of internet dropping… Read more
since device was added to system. Was told by Telstra I’d I get speed of 10 Mbps , then booster working OK. Really !!! Before booster I never had speed less than 80 as I had 100 Mbps plan. Frustrated, changed to another provider. Going to complain to ACMA and ACCC as in my opinion it is a fraud, they do not mention that their $288 booster supposed to give you minimum speed of 10 Mbps, otherwise no one in right mind will purchase this unless your speed in some room is actually less than 10 Mbps .
This might help someone – Ok, got this booster with Telstra rewards points to try and get Wifi in my colour bond shed. I suffered the same problem as many people in the question and answer section of above reviews where they could not get it to connect once the Ethernet cable was removed. Rather than chase this up with Telstra as I know I would have been better off talking… Read more
to a tree in my backyard, and that would be after phoning the tree to make an appointment, I searched YouTube. Cut a long story short if you have this problem try resetting your modem by using the reset button on the back of your modem (factory reset) and remove the SIM card and replace. Hey presto! I have wifi in my shed where I previously had none and the booster hasn’t given me any problems, yet.
If you live in a metro area with NBN get one, well worth the effort – Cannot fault it. Works well and no boosters needed. Change passwords ASAP. We used telstrra plus ploints so it was a bargain. Show details
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Keeps dropping connection! – I upgraded to the Gen 3 smart modem about 3 months ago after having major reliabilty problems with the gen 2 modem. The gen 3 modem itself is super reliable, not something I can say about the gen 3 booster. Sure, it worked well for the first few months (as did the gen 2) but a few days ago it just decided to drop the wifi connection. After… Read more
repeated failed resets and a time wasting exercise with telstra "havnt got a clue" support, Ive thrown in the towel. Second time round with the same problem. So after an online consult with a support person ( who just disappeared) I've decided these boosters are a pile of junk. And at $288 a pop, you expect them to work. I have removed the booster to a more capable job of holding the door open on a sunny day..and thats praising it. I wont touch another booster from telstra ever again. Going to a more reliable mesh setup.
Heap of low Powered Junk – I have two of The Gen 3 Smart Boosters, I have to put them 30 cm away from My devices to get full bars. at 4 Meters in the same room there is one bar, they keep dropping out and need to be messed around with to get them back up and running. I ended up Buying a TP-LINK X90 Mesh and it makes the Telstra Smart Boosters look like a toy. And don't… Read more
even try contacting support unless you want to be messed around for 3 hours and end up talking to someone overseas that will read out a scripted reply that has nothing to do with the problem.
When it’s good it’s good, when it’s bad it’s a pain – Since installation there has been quite a few occasions where it just loses connection to the main modem/router. Even though it’s showing a blue (good) connection status it is retransmitting the signal but doesn’t allow any connections. When trying to connect it keeps cycling in and out without actually connecting. Wastes time trying to trouble shoot it every time. Worth the money-debatable. Show details
plug and play – -plug and play zero IT knowledge required -works seamlessly with telstra router -speed may not be comparable with other wifi6 mesh system like orbi or linksys in terms of speed but go have a look at orbi's tri-band wifi6 mesh price tag -no LAN port -WiFi EasyMesh standand
Telstra 3 wifi booster – Telstra gen 3 Works as intended with increased speeds love it!! bit expensive at $288 but you get what you pay for !! Recommend if you need reliability and don’t want to settle for second best. Paying for 50mbs but getting over 52-54mbs in an area which was previously a black spot! Show details
Mine hasn’t worked at all – Mine has not worked since installed. Telstra call centre hopeless. Told them to ring at 9.00 rang at 7.30. Still asleep. Rest modem tried re pairing still won’t connect time to send it back Show details
Get the job done – Easy to connect to the Telstra modem been using this for over a week great speeds on all devices. We have a 3 bedroom house full coverage all around. I will recommend this product. Show details
These Were OK, But Only Just – I'll start with the pro's. These are certainly the cheapest form of Wi-Fi Mesh products on the market, and they were a breeze to set up. I like the look of the individual disks and the Home Dashboard app is usable, although a bit clunky. The improvement to Wi-Fi speeds and signal strength were noticeable. Unfortunately, these were not reliable. I… Read more
would have to turn them all off, and then turn them all back on at least once per week - it got so bad that the kids even learned how to do it to get the Wi-Fi back online if I was not home. I never got to the bottom of this problem either, after many hours speaking to the people at Telstra.
In the end, I replaced them with a set of 3 Samsung Smarthings Wi-Fi mesh devices and I have never looked back. I'm glad to see in the other reviews that my experience was not the norm, however that does not make me feel any better.
Excellent WIFI Coverage – I now have perfect WIFI coverage around my 2 stories house. Could not use the "Home Dash Board" app as is requires V6.0 or later mobile phone. Great feature is the extender uses the same WIFI Id as the Telstra Modem V1.1 or Gen 2.0 and switches automatically as needed. Another product not pushed by Telstra that enhances the NBN Gen 1.1 or 2 modems… Read more
is their new cordless phones, the base unit TEC-C pairs with the additional TEC-A hand sets. ( x4 phones is possible. ) The TEC-C is setup to pair with Smart Modems using WIFI. Great feature if the modem was installed where the installer wanted it and you don't want your phone there. I am upgrading to this sometime. Compared other Extenders in local electronic stores, Telstra's are a well kept secret and look better value for money.
Find out how Telstra Smart Wi-fi Booster compares to other Modems / Routers
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Easy to set up and works better than the other 3 extenders I have tried – A breeze to set up, the signal in the furthest point in our house went from 1 bar to 3 consistently, sometimes 4 bars on my iPhone. I got mine free effectively using my Telstra + points so can't complain about price but at $288 ($12 a month over 24 months) I'd more likely have given it 4 stars. Show details
Worked like a breeze first time – Worked like a breeze first time with my Telstra Smart modem gen 2. All plug and play and has improved wifi signal by over 30db in some corners of the 2 storey house. It is value for money and a big saving from the Google wifi and other wifi mesh products on the market. Have been using wifi meter app around the house and the network signal strength seems constant on both storeys. Show details
Extends wifi connection perfectly – I live in a 3 story townhouse and struggled having reliable internet from where the modem connection initially starts (downstairs) decided to add this booster to my plan, connected it today without any issues and can see a huge difference in connectivity (FYI this is NOT a internet booster, it solely just helps the connection stay more stable in… Read more
bigger houses). My laptop before struggled to find the connection before but now picks it up straight away, highly recommended!
Good boost – So the catch with this booster is is only increases the range of the Gen 2 modem it doesnt increase the quality of the connection (i.e. the speed won't increase), one way i did manage to initially increase the speed is by plugging a LAN cable into the back of it and directly into the PC but i think Telstra throttled the connection once they realised i was downloading too much. All in all a good unit. Show details
Where’s my Telstra WiFi Booster! – Brought another wifi Booster Online after returning the first set and could not replace them as they were out of stock as they we’re faulty. Received an email stating they were back in stock in August so I ordered them online and paid for them on the 16 August and still waiting. Spoke to Telstra Chat, used CrowdSupport and arranged call backs via… Read more
the Telstra App and to date no one can explain where my order is? Impossible to get any assistance and have waisted endless hours on the phone. So far worst customer experience of m life!!!
Sleek and very easy to setup – Bought a pair of Telstra's smart wi-fi boosters and was very happy with the delivery time, ease of setup and overall design. I simply had to use Telstra's home dashboard app and both routers were paired to the existing base station within a couple of minutes. Recommended product. Show details
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