WiFi 7 Already? What about WiFi 6?

Yep, you read that right. WiFi 7 is already in the works. Some sources refer to it as 802.11be. However, the WiFi Alliance hasn’t officially assigned that name to the future WiFi update. And, the future update is still years away.

WiFi 7 is projected to roll out in 2024 at the earliest.

What’s up with WiFi 6 right now?

The new WiFi 6 standard (formerly known as 802.11ax) is finally starting to roll out. Smartphone devices, like the Galaxy Note 10, can support the new WiFi standard. WiFi 6 support means four times faster speeds than WiFi 5 (802.11ac). However, most devices still require WiFi 6 compatibility and internet connections that support the speeds to use it.

How much better will WiFi 7 be than WiFi 6?

The IEEE, which develops the standards for the WiFi Alliance certification, has already suggested that WiFi 7 will have 30Gbps speed. So far, WiFi 6 has shown a maximum of 1.3 Gbps speed.

But first, WiFi 6 is going to improve in three phases. Then, we will start to see WiFi 7. At this point, “WiFi 7” is a future iteration and not yet on the market.

WiFi 6 Improvement Phases to get to WiFi 7

The first improvement that we will see with WiFi 6 is more capacity. Specifically, devices should be able to operate on 6GHz spectrum in addition to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz that currently exist.

In the next phase, a new technology called uplink multiuser multiple-input multiple-output (or, UL MU-MIMO for short) will increase WiFi 6 speeds. People uploading data from phones or PCs will enjoy these faster speeds.

Two years after the second phase is when the “802.11be” (WiFi 7) updates should arrive. Again, if everything goes to plan, we should experience early stages of WiFi 7 by 2024.

Here’s what to look out for with WiFi 7 update:

• Even faster speeds
• Better range
• Decongest traffic
• Supporting multiple bands at once
• More data squeezed into 4096-QAM (radio signal) to improve home WiFi networks