The Future of Wi-Fi Includes the 6 GHz Band

As Wi-Fi navigates through the many challenges of demands and performance limitations, new Wi-Fi standards are helping to mitigate the problems and lead into the future of Wi-Fi.

In October 2018, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in favor of opening up 1200 MHz of spectrum for unlicensed devices in the 6 GHz band. This decision stemmed from pressures placed on the FCC by leading companies invested in Wi-Fi, including Broadcom, Cypress, Intel, Google, Apple, and Facebook.

In addition to the 1 GHz of additional unlicensed spectrum, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) created a new Extremely High Throughput study group for the new generation of Wi-Fi, reflecting the significant throughput increase over 802.11ax technologies. Through these combined efforts, the future of Wi-Fi has room to grow and exceed the performance of Wi-Fi today.

For additional insight from ABI Research, click here.