US based Chipmaker Qualcomm have finally introduced their chipset with support for Wi-Fi 6E, the latest version of the Wi-Fi that should be faster and reliable along with the wider range of airwaves.
“Wi-Fi to get their biggest upgrade which is due for a long time”
As per the announcement two set of products will be available, for phones and routers. For phones, chipset will be available second quarter of the year and for routers, it will be shipping immediately.
The phone chips fall under Qualcomm’s FastConnect line, which tend to end up integrated with their Snapdragon chips. There are two options at launch: the FastConnect 6700 and FastConnect 6900, which have top speeds of 3Gbps and 3.6Gbps respectively. Both SoC include support for the maximum size of channels (160MHz on 5GHz and 6GHz).
Qualcomm has already put out its top-of-the-line Snapdragon chips for this year, and they’re currently using the FastConnect 6800, which does not include 6GHz support. Qualcomm indicated that phone manufacturers could choose to use one of these newer Wi-Fi chips, but it’s not evident yet how many will go out of their way to add 6GHz support instead of just waiting for a new generation of Snapdragon chips where 6GHz support is included by default. Hence we assume these latest WiFi modules will be available from next year’s smartphones.
The US based Chip maker also announced a range of Wi-Fi 6E chips for routers. They fall under Qualcomm’s Networking Pro series, and there’ll be four chips in total — the 610, 810, 1210, and 1610. The chips range in capabilities from six Wi-Fi streams and a theoretical top speed of 5.4Gbps on the low end to 16 streams and 10.8Gbps on the high end. Qualcomm envisions mesh routers using these chips and putting the new 6 GHz spectrum to use as a backhaul to wirelessly connect the units, freeing up the 5GHz spectrum to communicate with devices.
For Qualcomm, the Wi-Fi 6E is still having a lot of difficulties ahead in their path. They are yet to secure the regulatory approvals for the 6 GHz spectrum in Europe region. However we believe the latest technology won’t take much time to be available for the consumers.
