Warns insufficient spectrum could harm Wi-Fi’s potential to contribute about $5 trillion to global economy by 2025
The Wi-Fi Alliance claims that the market for and the traction gained by its Wi-Fi 6E de facto industry standard means it urgently needs 6GHz spectrum globally.
There are now multiple devices that use the standard and it has applications in sectors as diverse as healthcare, education, and sports and entertainment. According to the Alliance, “the 6 GHz band is satisfying growing demand for higher-bandwidth services and more immersive experiences”.
It wants regulators and policymakers around the world to open the entire 1200MHz of spectrum in 6GHz for Wi-Fi to boost users’ experiences: Wi-Fi is expected to contribute almost $5 trillion to the global economy by 2025 and countries that make the entire band available for it should see greater socioeconomic benefits.
In Europe, Vodafone conducted a study of 4,000 people which showed four out of five households where someone works from home equated the importance of Wi-Fi access to that of electricity and gas.
The Federal Communications Commission in the US has recognised the importance of making the whole 1200MHz available for products and large-scale deployments whereas some countries have compromised, making just the lower 500MHz portion available. The Wi-Fi Alliance maintains an up-to-date list of the countries enabling Wi-Fi 6E.
TIP and its supporters are arguing that deriving the full benefits of Wi-Fi 6E depends on devices complying to its OpenWiFi standard, where the access point controller does not ‘lock’ the access point (AP) – rather components can be mixed and matched to drive down cost and foster innovation. TIP OpenWiFi also complies with the European Commission’s WiFi4EU which is all about providing Wi-Fi in Europe’s public outdoor spaces.
Extending applications
The Alliance says Wi-Fi 6E will also play a major role in innovations including Extended Reality (XR), augmented reality applications and holographic collaboration solutions.
More than 660 Wi-Fi 6E devices have been Wi-Fi CERTIFIED by Wi-Fi Alliance– the Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem includes smart TVs, smart phones, enterprise and residential access points (APs), and laptops. APs support faster speeds, smoother streaming and more reliable connections for enterprises and gamers alike.
APs include those from NETGEAR that support gigabit speeds and low latency for gamers. Extreme Networks offers a solution for outdoor venues which includes the Alliance’s WPA3 security, while Aruba specialises in solutions for campuses and classrooms coupled with Wi-Fi Location capabilities.
Cisco introduced Wi-Fi 6E APs enabling greater capacity for 4K and 8K videoconferencing, greater bandwidth for XR, and enhanced industrial IoT capabilities. Mesh systems like the Google Nest Wi-Fi Pro and Eero Pro 6E are also seeing high-bandwidth, Wi-Fi 6E upgrades.
Read more about applications and compliant devices here.