Netgear Expands Orbi Family With Cable Modem Tri-Band Mesh Combo Wi-Fi System

Netgear has launched a new product that will slip into its Orbi family of WiFi devices. The Orbi Tri-Band WiFi Cable Modem Router System is billed as the industry's first whole-home WiFi router that has an integrated cable modem, app setup, and a high-performance FastLane 3 Tri-Band WiFi system inside.

Netgear says that the modem creates "ultra-fast mesh WiFi coverage for homes up to 4,000 square feet." If your home is larger, you can add in Orbi Satellites that will expand coverage to an additional 2,000 square feet per satellite. The Orbi Tri-Band WiFi Cable Modem Router System is compatible right out of the box with Xfinity from Comcast, Spectrum, Cox and other service providers.

With most of those services, you are paying monthly rent for their cable modems in with the price for your internet service. Netgear says that the Orbi Tri-Band WiFi Cable Modem Router System will quickly pay for itself  with the money you save from eliminating that ongoing rent paid to your ISP.

"We're excited to be the first retail offering to combine the benefits of Orbi whole-home WiFi mesh networking with an embedded cable modem in a single, space-saving device," said David Henry, senior vice president of Connected Home Products for NETGEAR. "With the Orbi Tri-Band WiFi Cable Modem System, you’ll benefit from incredibly fast cable downloads and blazing-fast WiFi for an uninterrupted data flow to more connected devices, everywhere in your home, plus tons of great Orbi features like voice commands and smart parental controls, which will be added to the offering soon."

The new Orbi device has a DOCSIS 3.0 CableLabs-certified cable modem inside with 32x8 channel bonding. It can support 32 downstream bonded channels for performance and download speeds up to 1.4Gbps. The Orbi Router supports WiFi with up to 2.2Gbps data transfer across the network. 

Smart Connect Technology inside can intelligently select the best WiFi band for devices on the network for performance and to avoid interference. Beamforming+ improves the speed and range for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz devices. The Orbi Tri-Band WiFi Cable Modem Router System alone sells for $299.99, but a bundle that includes a single Satellite will retail for $399.99.