Silly me, I thought Zigbee used 900 MHz. That's not wrong, but it can also use the same 2.4 GHz band as WiFi, and that's what a Philips Hue Bridge does.
I got sucked into this by a WISP customer with a leased WiFi mesh system and somehow their Hue lights also became my problem. I didn't understand how smart lights work because I still turn my lights on and off the caveman way, with the light switch. Who knew I was insufficiently sedentary. Unfortunately, smart lights and home automation in general is marketed as plug and play, and consumers aren't going to consult Reddit or Wikipedia, which is what I had to do. Turns out 2.4 GHz WiFi messing with smart bulbs is a common issue. And Zigbee doesn't go as far as I thought, 10-20 meters depending on walls and stuff, and one of the recommended solutions is to put additional smart lights in the path since they form a mesh network. Also changing frequencies, like putting WiFi on channel 1 and Zigbee on channel 25. Sure, your typical Hue smart bulb buyer is going to do these things (not). Or they can call it an Internet problem when Alexa says some of the lights are unreachable. Yep, must be an Internet speed problem. (I'm going to guess Philips doesn't have phone support for light bulbs.) This customer also reported their Hue Bridge device was placed on top of the main WiFi mesh router. That doesn't sound like the best place to me.
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