Alistair McGowan is a Chartered Engineer with over 15 years of experience in telecommunications and network planning. He specialises in optimising Wi-Fi coverage in challenging environments, such as Victorian brick properties and multi-story townhouses. Currently, he consults for major UK ISPs to improve rural and urban broadband delivery.
Alistair McGowan holds a Master of Science in Telecommunications Engineering from Imperial College London and has spent the last decade working directly with Openreach infrastructure and independent fibre networks. His career began in core network planning, where he managed data traffic routing for large metropolitan areas, giving him deep insight into ISP backend operations and congestion management. He later transitioned to residential consulting, focusing on the specific challenges of British housing stock, where thick brick walls and older wiring often impede modern connectivity. Alistair is a certified Cisco CCNP and possesses extensive expertise in configuring Mesh systems, optimizing 5G throughput in urban centres, and deploying FTTH (Fibre to the Home) solutions. He writes extensively to help homeowners bridge the gap between advertised speeds and real-world throughput, demystifying technical protocols like Wi-Fi 6E and QoS settings. His advice is grounded in current UK telecommunications regulations and practical, hands-on testing of consumer hardware.