The deployment of 5G is paralyzed by the quarantine, but that does not mean that no progress is being made in improving both 5G and WiFi. Last year it was confirmed that the WiFi 6E will be able to use the 6 GHz band in the future, thus adding to the 2.4 and 5 GHz band. However, now 5G wants to get hold of that spectrum, which can cause many problems.
The FCC in the United States is working to make available to manufacturers 1,200 MHz of the 6 GHz band for WiFi connections (14 additional 80 MHz channels or 7 additional 160 MHz channels), offering very large channels and speeds of various Gbps, although in exchange for having a slightly shorter range.
To speed up its arrival, Ajit Pai has announced that they are working on a draft that will allow unlicensed devices to operate in this frequency band. The FCC already intended to do this last year, but various lobbies were pushing for that band to be used for 5G. The final draft will be voted on April 23, and requests to use it for 5G, which already has many frequencies at its disposal, will be ignored.
2 Gbps at 3 meters: advantages of 6 GHz WiFi 6E
Currently, this frequency is used by wireless broadband services and as a support network when there is saturation in the most frequently used frequencies. However, studies have shown that it is possible to share spectrum without interference problems between these services and WiFi, where mobiles can easily reach real speeds of 2 Gbps at 3 meters distance, and even higher speeds can be achieved. 1 Gbps consuming much less energy than current bands. The speed, on average, is 30% higher than with 5 GHz.
The WiFi Alliance supports Ajit Pai’s decision for all the benefits that this frequency band will have for users. The plan is to start using the WiFi 6E this year, which is the name of the new connection that will be compatible with this new band.
The first devices will arrive in the second half of 2020
Members of the WiFi Alliance supporting WiFi claim that the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands are not enough for the expected demand they have projected for the future. Therefore, a new frequency band is needed that not only decongests the other two, but also offers very broad channels to carry traffic simultaneously to various devices. Companies like Amazon, Facebook or Apple have in mind to use this frequency for future products, including wireless virtual reality glasses, since the standard will allow latencies of just 2 ms.
Broadcom has been one of the first manufacturers to announce WiFi chips compatible with WiFi 6E, being able to equip itself on routers and mobiles, even anticipating the official launch of the standard and the connectivity license. Thanks to this, from the second half of the year we may see devices that make use of this chip. Qualcomm, meanwhile, is also poised to launch devices with its chips.
Source> Fierce Wireless
