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FIVE Meshes Together a Domesticated Home Wi-Fi Router

08.06.21 | By
FIVE Meshes Together a Domesticated Home Wi-Fi Router

Home wi-fi mesh systems like Eero, TP-Link Deco and Google Nest Wifi have done an admirable job of disguising the necessary tech required to deliver wireless connectivity within the home. It’s the same impetus which inspired British industrial product designers Hans Ramzan and Alex Fleming, both dedicated to “humanizing technology by curating meaningful products with a purpose to improve quality of life” to take a stab at domesticating wi-fi within the home with their own proposed concept, FIVE.

“Everything and everyone revolves around the internet. We have smart-phones, smart-speakers and smart-TV’s,” says Hans Ramzan, “Yet the device that drives these ecosystems has not evolved alongside its counterparts. We asked ourselves, why has the Wi-Fi router seldom changed? Why are these integral products in our life still so confusing? Our mission puts people before technology, humanizing the domestic Wi-Fi system to create the world’s first smart 5G router for the home.”

For this purpose Ramzan and Fleming have given their system an aesthetic treatment closer to the efforts made within wireless home audio. FIVE’s 5G hub uses a 5G SIM card rather than an incoming cable broadband connection, with an interchangeable SIM card slot removing a common tether that typically limits users from finding the best and most convenient area to position an internet modem and/or wireless router.

FIVE was shortlisted as a Red Dot Award finalist this year, lauded for not only its hardware, but also recognized for the attention applied to its companion mobile app, similarly designed to remove the complexities traditionally associated with setting up and managing a home network.

The app allows the user to solve issues via live chat and stay in control of your privacy by managing devices accessing your internal network. Implementing an interchangeable SIM card slot gives control back to the user over network provider.

Similar to Plume’s discreet plug-in wireless mesh wall plugs, FIVE’s mesh networking plug-in units are meant to take up as little space physically and aesthetically within the home, extending wi-fi connectivity across larger homes.

With 5G networks extending further and more evenly across both urban and suburban landscapes, smartly appointed network devices like FIVE will become increasingly desirable solutions for people who desire the speed, but could care less for the tech itself. For more information, please visit: https://hansramzan.com/portfolio/five.

Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a profound love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, a selection of his adventures and musings can be found at gregoryhan.com.