Wi-Fi is going to get a lot better. Many of this year’s new phones, laptops, TVs, routers and more will support Wi-Fi 6E, a new upgrade to Wi-Fi, which is actually like connecting your wireless connection from a two-lane to a roller coaster to knit. motorway. This is the biggest Wi-Fi upgrade in 20 years, so connections need to be faster and more reliable.
The Wi-Fi Alliance, the industry group that oversees Wi-Fi, is now starting to certify the first golf products with support for Wi-Fi 6E. According to the IDC research group, supported telephones, computers and laptops will start entering the market in the first months of 2021, and supported TVs and VR devices are expected to arrive by the middle of the year.
Some of the first devices will probably be announced next week. During CES, which begins on January 11, router companies will see a preview of what they’re up to for the year. Samsung is also planning to announce its next flagship phone, the Galaxy S21 series, and some, if not all, are likely to have support for Wi-Fi 6E thanks to the Snapdragon 888 processor. Because the disc contains support for it, Wi-Fi 6E should be present in many of this year’s top Android phones.
Wi-Fi 6E is such a big upgrade because it depends on a major expansion of the wireless airwaves available for consumer devices. In April 2020, the Federal Communications Commission opened this wide new spectrum in the United States, but new hardware was needed to take advantage of it. Almost a year later, we are finally starting to see devices with those capabilities.
Existing Wi-Fi devices operate on two spectrum bands, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. Wi-Fi 6E adds a third – 6 GHz – and there are many more, which quadruples the total amount of airwaves used for typical Wi-Fi. This means that you can have larger, higher speed connections, and that the air waves are less crowded. In an apartment building, for example, your neighbors’ Wi-Fi networks can interfere with your own. But with Wi-Fi 6E, there is a lot more bandwidth to go around, so there is less chance that you will be fighting over the exact same airwaves.
However, it will take a while before most new devices ship with Wi-Fi 6E. Not all new devices are shipped with standard Wi-Fi 6 yet, and the Wi-Fi version started running about two years ago. By early 2022, IDC expects only 20 percent of shipments of Wi-Fi 6 products to support Wi-Fi 6E as well.
Another obstacle is the support of regulators worldwide. Although the United States has approved the use of 6GHz airwaves, communications regulators in other countries must also approve the spectrum for WiFi use. The Wi-Fi Alliance says that the United Kingdom, the EU, South Korea, Chile and the United Arab Emirates have all given the green light to the use of 6 GHz for Wi-Fi, while regulators in Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Japan, among others, is where progress is being made.
‘There is absolute momentum, and it builds to make [6GHz] available for Wi-Fi, ”said Kevin Robinson, the Wi-Fi Alliance’s marketing leader. The edge.