iPad Air slow WiFi connection

I'm having WiFi connection speed problem with new iPad Air and Airport-extreme 802.11ac.

I can get over 30Mbps download speed with old iPad2 but with new iPad Air, I get only 7 or 8Mbps.

I saw https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5516013 (Slow WiFi on the new iPad Air). He solve the problem by changing the Channel Bandwidth settings on the router but not such setting on airport-extreme 802.11ac.

Posted on Nov 3, 2013 8:06 AM

Nov 13, 2015 1:53 PM in response to Masayoshi3

I bought 2 iPad Air2 64Gbyte in September from a reputable UK supplier. Both worked perfectly straight from the box.

5 weeks later in early October BT infinity broadband became available in our road, so we switched, and took advantage of using BT’s Homehub5 modem/router with dualband wifi.

One of the iPads worked just fine, but the other had VERY slow (<1Mbps) connectivity. The other iPad had 32Mbps. When I swapped the BT homehub5 for my old router (Ubiquiti Air), both iPads worked OK. A LONG, LONG time was spent fiddling with router and iPad settings with no success. A borrowed Netgear dual band modem/router replicated the fault experienced with the BT router, convincing me that the fault lay in the iPad throwing a strop if 802.11ac wireless was being broadcast.

I could find no way of configuring the BT homehub to only transmit 2.4GHz to confirm my suspicion that the ‘faulty’ iPad only showed the fault if a 802.11ac was present.

I took the iPad to the iStore in Tunbridge Wells, and it’s wifi speed there was normal – cruciallythe store had no 802.11ac wireless.

So I returned the iPad as faulty, and today I received a replacement under warranty. Its wifi speed is good – same as the other iPad.

So I’d say that SOME iPad Air2 units have a wifi fault that ONLY shows up if 802.11ac wifi is present. Hope this is of help.