Post actualizado el día octubre 25, 2026 by DeiviSanzPlay
When the installer rings the doorbell, most people have already compared rates, but few check which part of the fiber and wifi installation is on them and which the operator covers. That’s where the real savings are: between a well-negotiated free installation and a poorly executed paid one, there can be a difference of more than €150 and several hours of outages.
What the operator’s free installation really includes
According to the commercial documentation of the major operators, standard installation is usually free with a new sign-up and a commitment to stay, and includes: fiber run to the interior (FTTH), an ONT or router on a rental basis, basic wifi configuration and, in some cases, a repeater if you sign up for the highest-speed plan. What it rarely covers at no cost is long interior cabling, running cable through finished walls, or deploying network points in several rooms.
The hidden cost: the wall socket and the cable to the living room
A common practice is to leave the ONT next to the front door and run the wifi from there. In flats of more than 90 m² with load-bearing walls, that signal arrives weak in the master bedroom. The installer may offer you the additional cabling, but it is usually billed separately, and they don’t always explain this beforehand. Asking about the routing before signing the contract avoids surprises.
Free alternatives that actually work
- Reuse the old router as an access point: if you have a router from a previous provider, many models support bridge or AP mode. Setting it up via Ethernet cable to the main router costs €0 and usually performs better than a cheap repeater.
- PLC (Powerline) with adapters you already have at home: if you have a kit, installation is immediate and requires no work. Real limitation: performance drops sharply if the outlets are on different circuits or there are surge-protected power strips.
- Channel and band optimization: switching from the 2.4 GHz channel to 5 GHz and separating the networks reduces interference in dense buildings at no cost. It’s the most cost-effective free improvement and the one fewest people apply.
- DIY cabling: anyone with minimal skill can run a patch cable along the baseboard or through the blind recess. It’s not for everyone: tampering with the operator’s installation can void warranties.
When paying makes sense
Paying is justified in three specific scenarios: multi-storey homes, thick reinforced concrete walls, or the need for coverage in the garage or garden. A three-node mesh system with wired backhaul, installed by a technician, costs around €200-300 including equipment and labor, but it solves what no free trick can fix. It’s also worth paying for the fiber installation if the operator only offers a standalone plan with no commitment: the sign-up fee costs more than taking on a 12-month contract.
A case that keeps coming up
In a two-storey detached house, the customer signed up for 1 Gb fiber and the installer left the ONT in the ground-floor living room. Upstairs, with a concrete slab, the wifi speed dropped to 40-60 Mbps. We first tried a mid-range repeater: it made latency worse. Then a PLC from the kit he had stored away: it worked on the same line, but not in the kitchen. The definitive solution was an Ethernet cable through the interior courtyard and an access point in the upstairs hallway. Cost of the cable: about €25. Cost of having done it right from the start: zero.
What neither free nor paid solutions can fix
No installation fixes poor operator coverage or an overloaded building. If the fiber arrives with losses or the splitter is saturated, perfect wifi won’t compensate. Nor does a «no-work» installation exist in every case: in old flats with solid brick walls, hidden cabling requires chasing into the walls. And be wary of anyone who promises guaranteed full coverage with a single router: the physics of waves doesn’t negotiate.
How to decide in five minutes
Measure the speed in the room where you use wifi the most. If it exceeds 60-70% of what you’re paying for, don’t pay anything: optimize channels. If it’s below 30%, the problem is distribution and paying for cabling or mesh will be worthwhile. If you suspect the problem is the line itself, file a complaint before spending on equipment: according to the operators’ documentation, speed issues are diagnosed from the router, not from the repeater.
