Questions as UK Study Claims Xmas Trees May Slow “internet speed” by 88 Percent
A new piece of “research” from Broadband Genie has claimed that Christmas trees can slow your “internet speed” via WiFi by up to 88%. This is said to be due to how the tree’s “pine needles, branches, fairy lights, tinsel, and baubles can absorb and deflect your router’s Wi-Fi signals“, causing it to “slow and reduce its range” throughout the home. But it’s not always that simple.
“I was shocked to discover just how much of a difference it can make. I first noticed when I couldn’t receive signal in some parts of our home and my video calls for work became jittery. Our house isn’t massive, so there is nowhere else for the tree to go. I’ve moved it away as much as I can from the router, and it has since made it a bit better. I just wish I knew this before we decorated it!,” said Sophie from Cambridge.
According to the press release, Sophie previously experienced download and upload speeds of 193Mbps and 26Mbps, respectively, prior to putting up the Christmas tree. But these fell to 134Mbps (-31%) and 3Mbps (-88%), respectively, after the tree had been erected in her living room.
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However, we have to question this study because it appears as if the test was only based on a single user’s experience, as opposed to using multiple users in different environments with different scenarios and establishing proper baselines to produce a more scientifically credible output. The press release also fails to identify precisely where the router was located in relation to the tree, which is important.
Can Xmas Trees Slow Internet Connectivity?
The key point above about Christmas Trees being able to disrupt WiFi is indeed correct, although how much it impacts your home does depend upon a lot of different factors, such as precisely what you’ve put on the tree, what materials it’s made from, the radio bands being used (2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz) in your network/devices and the location of your router / tree etc.
For example, if the main router is in another room and the Christmas tree is near to an end corner window, then it’s less likely to have a dramatic impact on overall performance. In this case, it sounds like the router and tree were initially placed very close together in the same room, which would of course be very counterproductive to signal propagation and performance around the home (concealing routers behind things can weaken their reach).
It’s also well-known that some older style blinking Christmas Tree Lights (blown glass bulbs with a carbon or tungsten filament) could cause a bit of interference for those with copper line broadband services (e.g. ADSL and FTTC/VDSL/SOGEA), which if you’re not careful might even impact your connection stability. But this tends to be less of an issue with modern LED lights, and keeping the tree well away from your modem/router will help.
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Before going to press we conducted our own very anecdotal test, although in this case our router was positioned upstairs on the landing (central to the house) and the Christmas tree sat downstairs in the living room. Overall, we noticed no appreciable decline in WiFi performance vs baseline to any devices, but then we have none connected near to the tree itself.
As above, if you do suffer a performance detriment on your WiFi, then it may be time to consider a wireless mesh solution or perhaps even running a wired link around the home. Powerline adapters (e.g. the TP-Link TL-PA7017P KIT for £44) are also an option, although these have their own set of caveats.
We’d of course be interested to hear about any other before vs after (tree deployment) results from other visitors in the comments.
UPDATE 11:11am
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The comparison site has informed us that the test was conducted using a single router positioned 4 meters away from the device (laptop). The tree was placed between the router and the device, so the results are not too surprising.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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“It’s also a well-known fact that older style Christmas Tree Lights (blown glass bulbs with a carbon or tungsten filament) could cause interference”
This surprises me. There’s not a lot going on with filament bulbs, and no power supply converter either if they’re the original connected-in-series-directly-to-mains type. Badly seated arcing bulbs aside of course, but I’d be more concerned about fire in that case!
One year I did essentially lose my ADSL connection in the evenings at Christmas. Turned out to be an electrically very noisy switched-mode power supply on the Christmas lights. That got junked once I worked out what was going on.
Hi,
I would question the point about “old” lights. The most electromagnetically benign form of Christmas tree lighting (other than candles, which come with their own risks!) is almost certainly going to be continuously lit traditional tungsten bulbs. Flashing tungsten bulbs (the kind with a bi-metallic strip built into the bulb itself) will probably be the worst however.
LEDs may well be driven from a cheap switched mode power supply – it is difficult to predict the extent to which any given cheap power supply meets EMC standards.
Like Christmas cracker jokes, these annual publicity attempts raise an annual half-amused groan of appreciation for novelty.
Oh, go on. Test the WiFi interference of a brick wall then.
If that’s too tame as clickbait, do a microwave next, or the cat’s litter box.
Asinine rubbish…
This would explain why the mobile networks in the UK are so bad especially in areas where sites are hidden away in trees, factor in rain and snow I’m surprised your shiny new toy works at all.
Is it april 1st again.
Anyway, what about Humans? We’re 80% (or more) water, and guess what frequency water vibrates at.
Ah the traditional Christmas Tale of evil tree lights stealing the internet from unsuspecting householders!
Sun Newspaper headline:
‘Mega Hurts: “Christmas Tree steals Christmas” says Genie.’
make your internet faster with this one simple trick!
xmas tree sellers hate it
ISPs don’t want you to know!
I got SoGfast and open up the DSLStats under FE, CRC, SES and ES as it seem none are affecting from the xmas tree flashing lights and my house with all xmas lighting up. No issues at all.
FEC
“An URGENT warning for WFH users about poor internet connectivity:
This from one of the most popular Coffee brands; Kenny&Coe have recently released research demonstrating it is best to drink the full cafetiere of coffee before starting work in the morning.
Leaving a partially filled cafetiere on the work surface next to your laptop can zap your WiFi speeds dramatically. If you want to be on top form for that important business meeting then supping the last drops of WiFi absorbing liqueur from the morning’s brew, before your meeting starts could be just the ticket.”
Yep looks like this research can be applied to most things in the house. If we got an AI bot involved the possibilities are endless.
Did tech support for 29 years – every year this came up and every year it was true. It’s to do with the switches in the equipment
A very small risk i most case it will make no real difference to your WiFi signal
The government should make it mandatory for all Christmas trees to be sold with integral Wi-Fi boosting antennas, which can be powered alongside the lights. And if you have one of those fibre optic trees, it’ll go even faster as you have a “full fibre” Christmas!