Bug Report: XB8 gateway does not broadcast 802.11d country IE in default state — Wi-Fi 6 clients capped at 54 Mbps

*written with the assistance of Claude, but confirmed by hours of human testing*

XB8 does not broadcast 802.11d country IE in default state — Wi-Fi 6 clients capped at 54 Mbps

Device: Xfinity XB8 gateway

Issue

The XB8 does not broadcast a country information element (country IE) in its 802.11 beacon frames while operating under its default factory SSID (XFSETUP-*). The country IE only begins appearing in beacons after the gateway is configured with a custom SSID and password. Additionally, subsequent configuration changes such as password changes can cause the gateway to temporarily stop broadcasting the country IE again until it has been running stably for some time.

Steps to reproduce

Factory reset the XB8 — it broadcasts under the default XFSETUP-* SSID
Connect a Wi-Fi 6 device to the default network
Observe throughput capped around 20 Mbps despite strong signal and full bars
Configure a custom SSID and password via the Xfinity app or admin interface
Disconnect and reconnect the affected device
Observe throughput returns to normal (500+ Mbps)

Expected behavior

The XB8 should broadcast a valid country IE (country code US) in beacon frames at all times, including while operating under the default factory SSID. This is required by IEEE 802.11d and is standard behavior for residential gateways sold and operated in the United States.

Additional context

This was identified and isolated on a Linux system using an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6 adapter. Intel's Wi-Fi 6 adapters use a self-managed regulatory domain — the card's firmware derives its country code solely from the AP's country IE, or from BIOS/UEFI geographic tables, which desktop motherboards do not provide. When no country IE is present, the card defaults to the most restrictive "World" regulatory domain (country code 00). Under country 00, 5 GHz channels are restricted to passive scanning only, which causes the driver to fall back to a legacy 802.11a connection (20 MHz, no HT) and hard-caps throughput at 54 Mbps regardless of signal strength, band, or hardware capability.

Other devices — phones, laptops — are not visibly affected because their country code is burned into firmware at the factory and does not depend on the AP to provide it. This does not mean the XB8 is behaving correctly. It means other devices silently work around the missing country IE rather than exposing the gap. The XB8 is non-compliant with 802.11d regardless of which client is connecting, and any Wi-Fi 6 adapter that follows the spec strictly — as Intel's do — will be impacted.

The issue was conclusively isolated to the gateway by booting a Linux live USB on the same machine, same physical location, same adapter, while the gateway was already running with a custom SSID configured. The live system connected at full speed. Every hardware variable was identical — the only difference was whether the gateway was in its default XFSETUP-* state or configured with a custom SSID, which causes it to begin broadcasting the country IE.

Workaround

Configuring a custom SSID and password causes the XB8 to begin broadcasting the country IE, which resolves the issue under normal conditions. However this should not be required — the country IE should be present from the moment the gateway is powered on.