Marco della Cava

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO – If you’re still chasing a WiFi high, Plume is the latest start-up promising to turn your home into a networked paradise.

But in joining a slew of companies – Eero, Luma and Google’s OnHub among them – that are aiming to solve for the growing domestic bandwidth demand from tech gadgets, Palo Alto-based Plume has a twist.

Instead of using a traditional in-home router as your WiFi’s air traffic control tower, Plume’s network uses cloud-based technology that shifts the signal between six or more plug-in devices around the home depending on load demand.

The idea is that if you’re streaming a movie in HD to a 4K TV in one room, Plume’s network will route more bandwidth to the device in the room with that television.

Plume goes on pre-sale Thursday at a price of $39 per hexagonal device (which will later jump to $49), or $240 for six, which is the number the company recommends for an average apartment. It recommends eight or more for homes, or one device per room or hallway. Delivery is expected in the fall.

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“Rather than introducing more expensive hardware, we decided to deconstruct the traditional router by leveraging inexpensive and scalable compute power from the cloud,” says Plume CEO Fahri Diner. “We can change the topography of your WiFi signal on the fly.”

That blanketing approach is also being taken by rivals Eero and Luma as competitors vie for the $10-billion-and-growing market for at-home WiFi gear, according to ABI Research.

The difference is that those mesh network devices get their marching orders from Eero's or Luma's lead device, which also acts as the home's router. Plume, in contrast, directs the devices via the cloud, determining which part of the house needs the strongest signal.

“A lot of these (WiFi) technologies are tried and true in the business environments, and now they’re coming to the home,” says Sam Rosen with ABI Research. “The number of devices in the home is growing as is their data consumption rates. What we’re seeing now is a number of companies trying to solve the pain point in different ways.”

Competition is likely to intensify, as the number of Internet of Things devices expands drastically in the coming years. Currently, two-thirds of the 6 billion IoT devices installed globally are in the home, with that figure expected to triple by 2020, according to Gartner.

The list of products competing for at-home bandwidth is fast expanding from a simple PC and smartphone or tablet to web-connected televisions, thermostats, door locks, garage doors, window shades and lights.

“WiFi role in the home is becoming as important as electrical wiring,” says Kevin Robinson, vice president of marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance, which certifies products from some 700 companies. “Right now, there’s an average of six WiFi-enabled devices per home. New companies are out there figuring out how to solve for an insatiable demand for performance.”

Robinson notes download speeds to the home will increase thanks to advancements such as Google Fiber, which is rolling out 1,000-megabit Internet connections to cities across the country. The key then will be to keep those lightning-fast connections operating throughout the home.

“The shift will be from mere coverage area to capacity,” he says.

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None of these new-fangled bandwidth booster solutions is cheap. In addition to paying a service provider for your broadband, you need to come up with hundreds of dollars to help that signal keep up with the draw.

Atlanta-based Luma, which has raised $15 million from investors, sells its large hexagonal hubs for $399 (for a three-pack). San Francisco-based Eero, which has raised $90 million, locked down 25,000 pre-orders for its devices, which currently sell for $499 for a trio.

In keeping with a by-now standard approach for IoT gear, all of these mesh network routers can be monitored and even controlled by an app.

On Thursday, Eero announced that it is adding a feature that allows parents to use the Eero app to create profiles of their children’s devices and program Eero to limit connectivity for those gadgets for certain time windows.

Plume, which announced its existence in March and has raised $25 million in capital, also has an app feature that allows users to block Web access to certain devices. But it is banking on the cloud to make its WiFi offering smarter than its competition.

Much like a Nest thermostat uses machine learning to understand usage patterns and predict shut-off times, Plume devices will over time “learn that maybe at 6 p.m. everyone is by the 4K TV and pre-configure your network to be ready to deal with that demand,” says Diner, a veteran of the commercial networking space.

At the company’s Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters is a demo home that tests Plume devices by running multiple televisions streaming HD content, adding a number of Skype calls and throwing in some interference from a faux neighbor for good measure.

“The idea is that your needs and your network’s needs will always be changing, and by using cloud-based algorithms we can help adjust in real time,” he says. “Our philosophy is, the network should come to you, versus you being a slave to the network.”

Follow USA TODAY reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter: @marcodellacava