Eeros new backup device keeps you online when your ISP fails – heres how it works

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Eero Signal is a new home internet backup device for Eero networks, available today with 4G and later this year with 5G.
• It connects to a compatible Eero and automatically switches to a cellular network in an internet outage.
• The device costs $100 and requires an Eero Plus subscription.

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If you’re like me and have a fully-integrated smart home, you need a connection at all times to access things remotely: cameras, lighting, or pet-related tech like doggie doors or feeders. If the internet goes out, things can get complicated.

Imagine leaving your dog at home while you’re away, only to cut your trip short because your home lost internet access. That just happened to me this winter, actually.

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The Eero Signal, available today with 4G, is a device designed to deal with this exact scenario, offering a solution to panic-inducing internet outages by switching your home network to LTE backup data if your connection is lost.

Designed as an add-on to your Eero network, you just plug it in to a compatible Eero (which is any USB-C powered Eero with Wi-Fi 6 support) and set up your backup network in the app.

If there’s an internet outage, the Eero Signal will automatically connect to the most optimal 4G cellular network. This means that even if there’s network congestion due to an influx of customers using 5G data, Signal will choose the best network so you’re not stuck with a slow connection.

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Using the Eero Signal for backup connection requires an Eero Plus subscription, which costs $99 a year and includes 10GB of backup data. However, each Eero Signal purchase includes six months of Eero Plus.

If you need more data due to more frequent network outages, Eero Plus 100 offers up to 100GB of backup data per month for $200 a year, though existing Eero Plus members can get the tier for $99 for the first year.

Who is Eero Signal for?

I recently left my dog home alone for a couple of nights while we were out of town. Even without anyone home, he has his smart doggy door for potty access, water and food dispensers, and a dog-loving neighbor to drop by and check on him. I also set up multiple cameras around the home so I could keep an eye on him — the same cameras showed me I had also accidentally left the kitchen lights on.

Flexing my amazing smart home panel, I started switching off circuits remotely to try to turn off these lights, only to end up disconnecting my main router.

Lacking backup internet connectivity, I lost visibility into my dog and remote control of his doggy door and our smart home panel. While I still had my neighbor to check on him, I didn’t want to risk him being trapped outside overnight if he decided to go through his smart doggy door.

I also couldn’t easily walk my neighbor through installing the EcoFlow app and giving her my credentials to control my smart home panel and switch the circuits back on.

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I tried every way to set up a backup connection, but it is impossible to do so remotely unless you’ve already set it up beforehand. As a result, we had to drive back over six hours to restore power and cut our trip short.

If I had an Eero Signal set up before our trip, I’d have had the backup connectivity needed to access my home panel and switch the circuit back on with the router instead of driving back.

For $100, an Eero Signal offers extra peace of mind not only for this off-the-wall situation, but also for common problems like losing your internet connection in the middle of a workday or when you’ve just settled in for family movie night. Eero will also offer a 5G Signal for $200, available later this year.