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PRICE 2-pack, Wi-Fi 5, £162 (£198 inc VAT) plus subscription from £82 (£99 inc VAT) per year from plume.com
If you’re anything like me, you’re thoroughly fed up of recurrent charges for software and services, so the idea of a home Wi-Fi mesh that requires an annual subscription sounds like an absolute non-starter.
It’s not wholly unreasonable, though. The Plume HomePass wireless mesh integrates a suite of online services, designed to protect your home network against the latest threats, as well as shield kids from inappropriate content. There’s nothing revolutionary about charging for this sort of thing – TP-Link’s HomeShield subscription adds similar features to its routers and meshes for £54 a year, while many Netgear products can be upgraded with security and parental control services for £60 and £50 per year respectively.
What’s different about Plume’s offering is that, rather than being an optional extra, the subscription services are the whole point – you can’t buy the package without them. So, once you’ve decided how many units
