You must have Wifi to use these bulbs. The hub is not necessary to make the bulbs work. The Geek squad put the hub on an extra lamp so I actually had 5 lights working-4 with the bulbs and 1 more with the hub that came in the box. I have the Google mini on one end of my house to extend my Wifi further than it reached before without the mini. I can turn the lights on and off using the app on my phone as long as I have internet