the wifi frequencies (especially at 2.4 GHz) are really crowded nowadays and 2.4 is full of interference.
You share the airwaves with all your neighbours gadgets, as well as interference from microwaves, wireless mouse/keyboards and other random devices (I have monitored it with some specialist equipment and found all sorts there; would post up some pics but I need to check them for security/privacy.
Its got to the stage that its impressive anything still works at all at 2.4 GHz; but that is achived by sharing out the bandwidth across lots of competing devices.
Many ISP supplied routers are not the best equipment and do not "play as nice"; some are on the verge of what is acceptable as radio communications equipment according to the international agreements and can even transmit rough noise across the band that will stop everyones wireless for a few seconds.
5GHz is slightly better for "free space" but not all equipment supports this (often new laptops do but not kit just 1-2 years older) and even then you have to select the channels carefully as those nice "free" ones are shared with aircraft radars; if a radar transmits into your area your access point is knocked back to a random channel lower on the band that may again be shared with the neighbours. (this bit varies depending on country and region)..