In a unanimous vote, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a proposal today that opens the 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use. Doing so frees up more than 1,200MHz of additional bandwidth for next-gen Wi-Fi 6E devices with antennas and chipsets capable of tapping into the extra spectrum.
"To accommodate that increase in Wi-Fi demand, the FCC is aiming to increase the supply of Wi-Fi spectrum with our boldest initiative yet: making the entire 6GHz band available for unlicensed use," reads the FCC's announcement of the plan to vote. "By doing this, we would effectively increase the amount of spectrum available for Wi-Fi almost by a factor of five."
The FCC went on to call the move a benefit to consumers, and one that will "further our leadership in next-generation wireless technologies, including 5G." An industry-funded study by Columbia professor Raul Katz backs that claim up, and suggests that the move could generate more than $180 billion in US revenue by 2025.
© Provided by CNET Broadcom With more than twice as much bandwidth as the 5GHz band used by Wi-Fi devices today, the 6GHz band can accommodate up to seven 160MHz channels at once. Latency stands to be a lot lower on the 6GHz band too, because there aren't any existing, older-gen Wi-Fi devices operating in that spectrum to slow things down. That gives the 6GHz band the potential to serve as an exclusive, multilane expressway for Wi-Fi devices equipped to take advantage, all of them using Wi-Fi 6, the newest, fastest and most efficient version of Wi-Fi.
In a statement released after the vote, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai pointed to the emergence of Wi-Fi 6 as a key motivator behind the decision.
"To realize that potential, we need faster, stronger Wi-Fi networks," Pai wrote. "But in order to fully take advantage of the benefits of Wi-Fi 6, we need to make more midband spectrum available for unlicensed use. It's been a long, long time since we did that and consumers deserve it."
The vote opening the 6GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi use comes several months after Pai initially signaled his support for the move.
"Today's vote lays the groundwork for tech companies to offer next-generation connectivity at a time when we need it most," says Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association. "Opening the 6GHz band means more spectrum available to power the Wi-Fi devices we rely on for working, socializing and even getting medical treatment remotely."
The Wi-Fi industry has signaled strong support for the move, as well. In January, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the new Wi-Fi 6E designation for devices equipped to operate in that 6GHz spectrum. Broadcom soon followed suit with Wi-Fi 6E chipsets for things like access points and mobile phones, and expects that manufacturers will move quickly to get those chips into new devices in the coming months.
"We're expecting the first set of devices to come to market in the second half of this year," said Vijay Nagarajan, vice president of marketing for Broadcom's wireless communications and connectivity division. "You'll see a whole slew of devices, both on the infrastructure side and on the client side, and much more in a much more accelerated manner in 2021."
"This is the most substantive decision any Commission has made on unlicensed spectrum in almost 25 years, and one that will empower our wireless experiences for the next 20 years," Nagarajan adds, calling today's vote "a definitive moment in US wireless history."
"Wi-Fi Alliance and its members are ready to deliver new 6GHz use cases and urge the Commission to support the Chairman's proposal," the industry group said in a statement.
"By making 6GHz available for unlicensed use, the FCC has secured the future of Wi-Fi," said Wi-Fi Alliance President and CEO Edgar Figueroa in a statement after the vote.
Qualcomm, too, signaled its readiness to jump into 6GHz waters.
"Qualcomm fully supports the FCC's plan to allocate the 6GHz band for advanced unlicensed operations," said Dean Brenner, the company's senior vice president for spectrum strategy and technology policy. "In February, we demonstrated a full suite of Wi Fi 6E products ready to start using this large new swath of spectrum."
"Across the country, Wi-Fi networks on unlicensed spectrum are supporting first responders, hospitals, telehealth, remote learning and remote work at unprecedented levels," says Chuck Robbins, chairman and CEO of Cisco. "Chairman Pai's decision to unleash the full potential of Wi-Fi alongside 5G could not come at a more important time."
Apple as well supported the move. "We applaud the FCC's decision to open up the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi and other uses," the company said in a statement. "It sets the course for the next generation of Wi-Fi networks and will help us to create innovative, new product experiences for our customers."
"This is clearly one the most important wireless announcements in a long time," Facebook's Director of Wireless Technologies Bruno Cendón tweeted, adding that the 6GHz band will be a "booster" for AR/VR applications.
Eric McLaughlin, vice president of the client computing group and general manager of the wireless solutions group at Intel agreed that we'll see new Wi-Fi 6E devices by the end of 2020, and notes that some in the industry have been preparing for the 6GHz age for years.
"Intel, Broadcom and other industry leaders made a risk call almost two years ago to start developing and spending millions of dollars on getting products ready," McLaughlin said.
Much of the work that's been done has gone toward demonstrating that unlicensed Wi-Fi usage wouldn't interfere with the small amount of existing traffic on the 6GHz band -- things like emergency broadcasts and microwave transmissions.
"What they're talking about is creating a brand new band for Wi-Fi," says Broadcom government affairs director Chris Szymanski. "That hasn't been done before. And so this is really one of the most heavily studied proceedings that I've seen, I mean, thousands of pages of technical studies. It was important for the FCC to get it right."
In the end, McLaughlin cites the demonstrated potential for the 6GHz band to make a widespread impact on the quality of our connections as the key factor that helped the move pick up momentum within the FCC.
"There's nobody that doesn't use Wi-Fi in some shape or form today," McLaughlin said. "That's one of the reasons we're so behind this. It's not just a product thing for us, it's that everyone can benefit, and that's a great use of these kinds of assets."
I have 1gb fiber internet and get frustrated for the fact that its hardly utilized due to most game downloads etc seem capped on the other end. 30/100 mbs . So im unsure even faster speed will matter for me. Though im on wireless connection however speed test show 400mbs
I disagree, it's not a reason for most people to upgrade their router. In big open areas where there will be a large number of users, such as conference rooms, airports, retail stores, and restaurants, it's going to be of great benefit, both for the bandwidth and the current AX improvements.
For home users where there are walls to degrade the signal and only 1-5 people typically using it, even say there are 12 people all streaming 25mbps video in the same room as the router, that doesn't even come close to saturating AC1200 both in terms of bandwidth and concurrent users.
It is a good time, however, for people who may still be on .11N routers to grab .11AC routers on clearance, and, of course, for anyone to upgrade for security reasons, as routers are often are unsupported months after release.
I've had this TP-Link router for a couple of years..has great coverage. Looks like I'll be set up...
I've had my Linksys WRT-1900ACS for 4.5 years, paid $200 for it, still $180 new...
Of course we just put in new access points at work and I got new ones at home in January.
pokester wrote:
Of course we just put in new access points at work and I got new ones at home in January.
my old 802.11ac box still works, but when DOCSIS 4.0 hardware surfaces I will swap it out
much of the hardware I have is < 802.11ax so the motivation is negligible at the moment
The 802.11ax working group indicted that when 6 Ghz band was available the standard would be amended to adopt the new channels quickly. Look for wave 2 802.11ax hardware to support all three bands presently available.
Really....
" Of course, to take advantage, you'll need to upgrade to devices that support the new Wi-Fi 6 standard -- most notably, your router itself. "
" Latency stands to be a lot lower on the 6GHz band too, because there aren't any existing, older-gen Wi-Fi devices operating in that spectrum to slow things down. "
the 802.11ax working group has been pestering the fcc for a while over the need for more bandwidth. cellular interests have also been vocal in their need for more bandwidth as well
given that the 6 ghz bands are new to WiFi you are correct in having legacy users slow things down
the main advantages are more 40, 80 and 160 mhz channels for local area use
new hardware should be available by fall for the first crop and into 2021 for more products to enter the market
Question is when can I download games faster than 30/160 mbs? Ha
chad27 wrote:
Question is when can I download games faster than 30/160 mbs? Ha
My internet is slower but it is unlimited so steam works overnight to update games.
When the governments of the world stop letting the telecoms companies dictate terms.
I wonder if its the IP or game company servers? I have 1gb service but
It's them manually capping them to prevent their own inadequate hardware or internet connection from crashing due to overload. As to when they'll lift that cap, probably not for a long time to come. At 30MB/s, a 60GB game can be downloaded in about half an hour, and with algorithms which allow you to download the critical files first and play while the rest downloads. That's plenty of incentive for them not to spend the money to upgrade their systems to allow gigabit speeds. There's also plenty of pressure from the owners of the backbones to keep speeds throttled.
This whole virus situation really showed how inadequate the USA and EU internet service really is, and it's not going to get any better anytime soon until the EU and FCC force telecoms companies to stop making insane profits for substandard service.
black_zion wrote:
It's them manually capping them to prevent their own inadequate hardware or internet connection from crashing due to overload. As to when they'll lift that cap, probably not for a long time to come. At 30MB/s, a 60GB game can be downloaded in about half an hour, and with algorithms which allow you to download the critical files first and play while the rest downloads. That's plenty of incentive for them not to spend the money to upgrade their systems to allow gigabit speeds. There's also plenty of pressure from the owners of the backbones to keep speeds throttled.
This whole virus situation really showed how inadequate the USA and EU internet service really is, and it's not going to get any better anytime soon until the EU and FCC force telecoms companies to stop making insane profits for substandard service.
It's just as bad in Canada with the oligopoly not being there for the consumer.
I am aware that locally there is now so much fiber installed that there is a 97% capacity underutilization.