Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain and Austin, TX – September 12, 2023 – Wi-Fi Alliance®, the leading Wi-Fi® industry organization, successfully hosted the first public demonstration of the next generation of Wi-Fi technology (“Wi-Fi 7”) in the Middle East. The demonstration was organized in conjunction with the Arab Spectrum Management Group (ASMG) meeting in preparation for the upcoming 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-23). As spectrum regulators gathered in Manama to consider regional alignment on WRC-23 agenda items, Wi-Fi Alliance demonstrated the critical importance of the 6.425-7.125 GHz band to the future of Wi-Fi in the Middle East and worldwide.
During the event, Wi-Fi Alliance® shared with the ASMG members the rapid growth of the Wi-Fi ecosystem in the 6 GHz frequency band, the socioeconomic benefits this brings to a country, and how the latest Wi-Fi technologies will further accelerate those benefits. Representatives from
Wi-Fi Alliance members – Broadcom, Cisco, HPE Aruba Networking, and Meta – showed how the latest generation of Wi-Fi operating in the full 6 GHz band drives innovation in their products and services to the benefit of consumers and businesses.
With the support of Broadcom, Wi-Fi Alliance hosted a regional first public demonstration of Wi-Fi 7 for ASMG participants. One demo showed the throughput capabilities of Wi-Fi 7 using Broadcom’s Wi-Fi 7 access point and client device reference designs. The demo showed a Wi-Fi 7 device operating in a 320 MHz channel at over 11 meters distance with throughputs of up to 3.7 Gbps downlink and 3.4 Gbps uplink. Another demo showed how multi-link operations (MLO) can provide deterministic low latency even when the radio waves are fully loaded.
Kevin Robinson, CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance said:
“Wi-Fi Alliance and industry partners are advocating for an outcome at WRC that will allow for licence-exempt use of the full 6 GHz band. Only then will the industry be able to deliver Wi-Fi’s full potential in the band, offering innovative new products and services that will support the connectivity agendas of countries around the world. By globally harmonizing use of this band for Wi-Fi, significant progress can be made to reduce congestion, leverage the potential of the growing number of fiber connections, and meet demand in a more energy efficient way.[1]”
Chris Szymanski, director of product marketing for Broadcom’s Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division added:
“These demonstrations showcase the capabilities of Wi-Fi 7 products that are sampling with our customers. The demonstrations were in configurations that we expect to be widely available in the market soon. The opportunities are real. This is a win-win for Arab states and would allow administrations to make advanced wireless broadband services accessible to their citizens, while still giving priority to fixed satellite services and fixed microwave services.”
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Austin, Texas, – August 7, 2023 – Wi-Fi Alliance® is augmenting Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6® testing protocols to support the regulatory authorization process of 6 GHz standard power devices pursuant to recently published Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) guidance. Release of this new testing allows product vendors and service providers to verify that the 6 GHz standard power devices meet the technical requirements in Part 15, Subpart E of the FCC rules pertaining to operations under control of the Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) system.
Wi-Fi Alliance members undergoing Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 testing can leverage nine Wi-Fi Alliance accredited Authorized Test Laboratories (ATL) – that are also FCC-recognized accredited test labs –– to efficiently complete regulatory testing of their 6 GHz standard power devices.
Certification for Wi-Fi 6E devices, as part of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6, helps ensure products meet high standards for interoperability, security, and a range of application specific protocols. Wi-Fi® interoperability in 6 GHz promotes worldwide innovation and a diverse 6 GHz ecosystem. With the new standard power device testing capability, members can maximize efficiency and expediency in obtaining regulatory equipment authorization, while ensuring their devices meet high Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ standards.
Wi-Fi Alliance is leading the development of specifications, test plans, and training modules to enable implementation of 6 GHz standard power devices under control of the AFC system, and this new capability further underscores our work goal to drive the broadest possible adoption of 6 GHz. The AFC system approach maximizes spectrum availability for license-exempt devices, such as Wi-Fi, by dynamically determining channel availability at specified locations to avoid and protect licensed operations in the 6 GHz frequency band.
Additional information is available through our website: Wi-Fi Alliance 6 GHz AFC Resources
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Austin, TX and Washington, D.C. – July 31, 2023 – As policymakers around the world consider the future of the 6 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band, a new report from WIK-Consult provides clear evidence that allowing Wi-Fi® access to the entire frequency band advances environmental sustainability goals in combating climate change. The WIK-Consult study prepared for Wi-Fi Alliance® – Sustainability Benefits of 6 GHz Spectrum Policy – shows that with sufficient access to spectrum, Wi-Fi outperforms cellular networks in delivering broadband connectivity with significant reductions in energy consumption and environmental footprint.
Wi-Fi Alliance is proud to contribute this report to help countries’ ambitious aims to respond to the climate change threat. According to the WIK-Consult analysis, allowing Wi-Fi access to the entire 6 GHz frequency band in Europe would eliminate 3.2 megatons of CO2 emission per year. Similar results can be expected in other parts of the world.
The upcoming 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference presents policymakers with a unique and compelling opportunity to leverage 6 GHz spectrum policy to enable broadband connectivity, deliver economic value, and advance environmental sustainability. Wi-Fi Alliance calls on policymakers to recognize that opening the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi – in addition to environmental benefits – enables a wide range of new technologies and use cases, which aligns with growing broadband (e.g., fiber) deployments. Wi-Fi connectivity is versatile, extremely affordable, and compatible with existing networks that share security, management, and authentication implementations. This makes Wi-Fi an ideal “force multiplier.”
Read the full report: https://www.wi-fi.org/file/sustainability-benefits-of-6-ghz-spectrum-policy.
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Austin, TX and Washington, D.C. – July 12, 2023 – Wi-Fi Alliance® congratulates Anna Gomez, Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks on approval of their nominations to the Federal Communications Commission by the Senate Commerce Committee. We look forward to their prompt confirmation by the U.S. Senate and to working with these highly experienced and dedicated civil servants on delivering Wi-Fi® connectivity benefits across America.
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Washington, DC – June 20, 2023 – The Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnForum) and Wi-Fi Alliance® have jointly presented the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with the complete package of specifications and test plans for the 6 GHz Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) system. Delivery of this package is the culmination of a multiyear effort by both organizations to advance connectivity in the 6 GHz band representing consensus of the 6 GHz stakeholders including component and equipment manufacturers, AFC System applicants, network operators, incumbent and unlicensed operators, system integrators, software companies and many others.
“Completion of this specification and test plan package is a momentous step towards enabling a robust Wi-Fi® ecosystem in the 6 GHz frequency band,” said Alex Roytblat, Vice-President of Worldwide Regulatory Affairs at Wi-Fi Alliance. “This achievement represents remarkable collaboration between WInnForum, Wi-Fi Alliance®, and our member companies.”
“We’re excited about completing our specifications and test plans and are looking forward to moving into the AFC testing and certification phase,” said Mark Gibson, Sr. Director of Regulatory and Policy at CommScope and President and Chair of the WInnForum. “The great collaboration among the members of WInnForum and Wi-Fi Alliance® was key to ensuring broad stakeholder representation.”
Wi-Fi Alliance® resources for the 6 GHz AFC are available here and include:
WInnForum core documents include:
About the Wireless Innovation Forum
Established in 1996, the Wireless Innovation Forum™ comprises an international group of equipment vendors, subsystem vendors, software developers, technology developers, communication service providers, research and engineering organizations, academic institutions, government users, regulators and others who share the common business interests of advancing technologies supporting the innovative utilization of spectrum and the development of wireless communications systems, including essential or critical communications systems. www.WirelessInnovation.org. Forum projects are supported by platinum sponsor Thales.
About Wi-Fi Alliance
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
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Editorial Contacts
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance, wi-fi@highwirepr.com
Lee Pucker, 604-828-9876, Lee.Pucker@wirelessinnovation.org or
Stephanie Hamill, 970-290-9543 or Stephanie.Hamill@wirelessinnovation.org
Austin, TX – June 15, 2023 – Wi-Fi Alliance® commends the Bureau of Radio Regulation (State Radio Office), a subsidiary of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China, on issuing a consultation on the “Notice on New Type Approval Technical Requirements and Test Methods for Wireless LAN Equipment Adopting IEEE 802.11be Technical Standards”.
This important initiative advances authorization of Wi-Fi 7 in the People’s Republic of China for the benefit of consumers and industry. Wi-Fi Alliance and our member companies stand ready to move forward with enabling the next generation of Wi-Fi® in China consistent with all applicable regulations and requirements.
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Follow Wi-Fi Alliance:
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wi-fi.org/signal
facebook.com/wificertified
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Media Contact:
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Austin, TX and Washington, D.C. – May 24, 2023 – Wi-Fi Alliance® hosted member companies Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Extreme Networks, LitePoint, MediaTek, Qualcomm, and RUCKUS Networks/CommScope for an AFC Device Under Test (DUT) Test Harness event. The goal of the event was to validate test harness implementation and to assess standard power device readiness to operate in conformance with requirements established by regulatory authorities such as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The event successfully demonstrated compliance of all devices with the Wi-Fi Alliance System to Device Interface (SDI) specification and their readiness to effectively operate under the control of an AFC system.
The AFC DUT Test Harness simulates the behavior of an AFC system and is used to automate procedures described in the AFC DUT Compliance Test Plan for 6 GHz standard power devices. The successful outcome of this event underscores the Wi-Fi® industry’s readiness towards enabling 6 GHz standard power device operation. Significant accomplishments of this event included:
Recent forecasts indicate that standard power 6 GHz devices will drive a 50+% increase in overall Wi-Fi access point shipments by 2028.[1] Wi-Fi Alliance looks forward to enabling this growing ecosystem and is working with regulatory authorities to enable standard power Wi-Fi operations around the world.
For more information on 6 GHz AFC resources, please visit https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/6-ghz-afc-resources.
Industry support for this milestone:
“Standard power Wi-Fi 7 will be a game changer, not only for outdoor networks, but to provide a significant boost to indoor wireless broadband. The Wi-Fi Alliance test harness will provide a pathway for industry to certify that standard power access points operating under the control of an Automated Frequency Coordination (AFC) System comply with regulatory requirements. Broadcom was delighted to collaborate with industry partners to validate standard power 6 GHz Wi-Fi market readiness.” – Christopher Szymanski, Director of Product Marketing, Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division, Broadcom
“Thanks to Wi-Fi Alliance, industry partners, and our team for this successful event. Cisco is fully committed to continued contribution and collaboration towards the success of the AFC program and 6 GHz standard power market availability.” – Bahador Amiri, Senior Director of Wireless Engineering, Cisco Systems
“RUCKUS Networks is excited to have participated successfully in the Wi-Fi Alliance AFC DUT Test Harness testing event with R560, one of our Wi-Fi 6E APs, and AFC proxy. This demonstrates a significant milestone in the development of AFC and takes the industry much closer to realizing the benefits of full, standard power in the 6 GHz band. RUCKUS’s AFC Proxy will enable a fully scalable, enterprise-grade support for deployment of our 6 GHz Access Points, taking advantage of this once-in-a-generation increase in Wi-Fi capacity, extending Wi-Fi performance into reliable multi-gigabit speeds,” – Bart Giordano, SVP & President, Networking, Intelligent Cellular & Security Solutions (NICS), CommScope
“Extreme continues to drive the Wi-Fi industry forward and the most recent milestone is the validation of our standard power access points in accordance with AFC DUT Compliance – which is a significant step in the broader industry’s adoption and transition to embracing standard power 6 GHz Wi-Fi. This accomplishment is a testament to our commitment to securing FCC certification for standard power devices, a crucial step toward implementing Automated Frequency Coordination. We look forward to the completion of FCC certification requirements as it pertains to Wi-Fi 6E as it will drive a significant wave of innovation, performance, and experiences like we have never seen before.” – Dan DeBacker, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Extreme Networks
“As a leader in wireless test solutions, LitePoint is pleased about the continued collaboration with Wi-Fi Alliance to enhance the adoption of the 6 GHz band. With the success of the forthcoming AFC certification, standard power access points will facilitate high density deployments and offer uninterrupted connectivity at both scale and speed. LitePoint’s test equipment will continue to assist product makers in their AFC certification journey and ensure that the Wi-Fi products they ship consistently meet and exceed the highest industry standards.” – Adam Smith, Director of Product Marketing, LitePoint
“Our leadership in Wi-Fi technology would not be complete without ensuring our customers have easy access to AFC solutions. We are delighted to have successfully participated in the Wi-Fi Alliance AFC DUT Test event alongside our industry partners. Our Filogic Wi-Fi 7 and 6E chips commit to support standard power operation in 6 GHz spectrum for companies who produce Wi-Fi devices.” – Alan Hsu, Corporate Vice President of Intelligent Connectivity Business Unit, MediaTek
“We applaud Wi-Fi Alliance’s progress towards advancing the certification of AFC. We have been an active participant in enabling the industry with AFC DUT Compliance testing framework as it is a vital step towards enabling improved access to this important spectrum. Qualcomm Technologies turnkey AFC Solution’s agent meets the requirements of the AFC DUT Compliance Test Plan, an important milestone towards commercial enablement.” – Ganesh Swaminathan, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Infrastructure and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Austin, TX and Washington, D.C. – February 16, 2023 – Wi-Fi Alliance® is disappointed with the decision by Mexico’s Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) to open only the lower portion of the 6 GHz band for license-exempt applications such as Wi-Fi®. Internet connectivity is an essential socioeconomic function, and Wi-Fi is the primary means of delivering Internet to consumers and enterprises in Mexico. The lack of sufficient spectrum access threatens the full realization of Wi-Fi performance and economic benefits. Wi-Fi Alliance notes that this decision undermines spectrum harmonization with other countries in the Americas, including Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, U.S., and others. Wi-Fi Alliance remains committed to working with IFT on delivering Wi-Fi technology benefits across Mexico.
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
Follow Wi-Fi Alliance:
wi-fi.org/beacon
wi-fi.org/signal
facebook.com/wificertified
twitter.com/wifialliance
linkedin.com/company/wi-fi-alliance
youtube.com/wifialliance
Media Contact:
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
Today, we’re joined by Jonas Bjorklund, Vice President of the Aptilo Product Line at Enea, to discuss the role of Wi-Fi in cellular convergence. Jonas shares that the rollout of Wi-Fi 6E has produced a new level of optimism for service providers, and how the emerging technologies will optimize Wi-Fi offloading. Listen to this episode to learn how using existing Wi-Fi infrastructures could make achieving the goal of convergence easier than expected.
Download the Enea Strategy Guide for Wi-Fi in the 5G Era: https://info.enea.com/wifi-strategy-guide
Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6: https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-6
For Wi-Fi Alliance: www.wi-fi.org
For Membership Info: https://www.wi-fi.org/membership
General Contact: https://www.wi-fi.org/contact-us
Product availability and large-scale deployments from Wi-Fi Alliance® members demonstrate Wi-Fi 6E readiness
Austin, TX – November 10, 2022 – Wi-Fi 6E is delivering value to users, enterprises, and service providers, and the 6 GHz band is satisfying growing demand for higher-bandwidth services and more immersive experiences. Since its introduction, Wi-Fi 6E has gained traction as the de-facto industry standard in products, and with healthcare, education, and sports and entertainment environments. There is immense market opportunity for Wi-Fi 6E, and decisions by regulators and policymakers around the world to open the entire 1200 MHz of spectrum in 6 GHz for Wi-Fi will have a significant impact on user experiences for students, employees, healthcare workers, researchers, and entrepreneurs in those countries. Enterprises deploying Wi-Fi 6E will also see a competitive advantage.
Wi-Fi is expected to contribute nearly $5 trillion USD to the global economy by 2025, and countries making the full band available for Wi-Fi will see greater socioeconomic benefits. Wi-Fi 6E will also play a major role in tomorrow’s innovations including Extended Reality (XR), sophisticated augmented reality applications, and even holographic collaboration solutions. Wi-Fi 6E will be a key ingredient to delivering the best user experience from these applications.
Wi-Fi 6E is seeing strong product, deployment, and regulatory momentum worldwide:
Products: a diverse and rapidly growing Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem
More than 660 Wi-Fi 6E devices have been Wi-Fi CERTIFIED by Wi-Fi Alliance®, and the diverse and rapidly growing Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem includes a wide variety of smart TVs, smart phones, enterprise and residential access points (APs), and laptops. APs are now available to support faster speeds, smoother streaming, and more reliable connections for enterprises and gamers alike; APs include those from NETGEAR delivering gigabit speeds and low latency for gamers, from Extreme Networks providing outdoor venue support with WPA3™ security, and from Aruba bringing optimized campus and classroom experiences 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.
Marquee devices with Wi-Fi 6E support – including the Apple iPad Pro, Google Pixel 7 and 7 Pro, and Samsung Neo QLED 8K TVs – will transform Wi-Fi experiences for users around the world. Devices like the Meta Quest Pro will help optimize VR, offer opportunity for deeper collaboration, and give users early access to the metaverse.
Deployments: large-scale networks and service provider support
A series of large-scale deployments coupled with strong global service provider momentum demonstrate Wi-Fi 6E’s readiness in various environments.
Sports and entertainment
Recently, the Chase Center in San Francisco and home of the Golden State Warriors NBA team announced they will deploy Aruba Wi-Fi 6E APs so that more than 18,000 fans can take advantage of “increased capacity, wider channels, and significantly reduced signal interference of 6 GHz” when live streaming and uploading recorded content at games.
Education
The University of Michigan recently deployed the world’s largest Wi-Fi 6E education deployment, with more than 16,000 Wi-Fi 6E APs across two campuses to provide the “ability to move an enormous amount of data, the ability to have 400 or 500 students in a classroom potentially connected via Zoom, sharing their screens and recording movies and all the projects they need to do simultaneously,” according to Ravi Pendse.
Aruba also recently announced that over 250 educational institutions across K-12 and higher education are upgrading their network infrastructures with Wi-Fi 6E, signaling the level of reliance that education institutions have on delivering extraordinary campus and classroom experience. Another recent deployment trial at Polytechnic Institute of Viseu in Portugal – a collaboration between the university, Broadcom, Extreme Networks, Intel, and Samsung – successfully demonstrated 8K video feed for remote teaching with HD video, ensuring students can access and interact with resources without buffering or lag time.
Service provider
Recently, Swisscom – powered by SoftatHome – became the fifth service provider in Europe to launch Wi-Fi 6E services for their customers and help deliver the advanced connected home experiences. Service provider support for Wi-Fi 6E across Europe including Orange, Bouygues, Free, and Deutsche Glasfaser further signals the need for European regulators and policymakers to make the upper and lower bands available for Wi-Fi. U.S. and Canadian service providers including Comcast and Bell and Rogers are delivering Wi-Fi 6E home broadband to users across the United States. These global service providers deploying Wi-fi 6E are bringing faster upload and download speeds, a better experience with at-home content consumption, and laying the foundation for a range of new customer services.
Regulatory: greatest socioeconomic value from entire 1200 MHz
Some of the latest countries to allow Wi-Fi access in 6 GHz spectrum include Bahrain, Kenya, and New Zealand, and Wi-Fi Alliance maintains an up-to-date list of the countries enabling Wi-Fi 6E. Users are demanding superior Wi-Fi, and countries and regions making all 1200 MHz of spectrum available are helping ensure people can experience the full benefits of Wi-Fi 6E. In Europe, Vodafone conducted a study[1] of 4,000 people, showing that four in five households where someone works from home equated the importance of Wi-Fi access to that of electricity and gas. Making the full 1200 MHz of spectrum available, rather than only opening the lower portion (500 MHz) of the band to Wi-Fi, is critical to giving people the most opportunity to experience the full Wi-Fi 6E benefits from new products or large-scale deployments. In the U.S., the FCC recently took an important step to authorize 6 GHz standard power unlicensed operations, which will unlock the full potential of Wi-Fi 6E and future Wi-Fi® generations.
For more, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-certified-6
Industry support for Wi-Fi 6E momentum
“At Airties, we are actively working with several broadband providers to launch Wi-Fi 6E in order to take advantage of its unprecedented capacity and benefits. A key advantage of Wi-Fi 6E is the ability to support more concurrently connected devices, which also places a greater obligation upon operators to manage both new and legacy devices. We’re honored that broadband providers are turning to Airties for their in-home connectivity management through our SaaS solution combining our Cloud platform, Smart Wi-Fi software, and Wi-Fi 6E extenders to help proactively manage, and enhance, the connectivity experience of their upcoming Wi-Fi 6E deployments.” – said Metin Taskin, CEO & CTO, Airties
“Aruba is seeing continued, strong demand for our Wi-Fi 6E solutions across all sectors of our customer base and tremendous progress on regulatory fronts internationally. There’s a lot to celebrate regarding Wi-Fi 6E, including the Golden State Warriors’ recent deployment of the first Wi-Fi 6E network at a live entertainment venue and the University of Michigan’s deployment of Wi-Fi 6E across their entire campus. The first live demonstration of an end-to-end Automatic Frequency Coordination system, in which we participated with the Communications and Information Technology Commission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Federated Wireless, bodes well for the future of Standard Power operation in the 6 GHz band.” – said Stuart Strickland, Wireless CTO and Fellow at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
“The momentum for Wi-Fi 6E is unmistakable. Riding on the ever-growing need for faster wireless broadband in the last few years, Broadcom has shipped over 1.3 billion Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E products to date. As we look forward, 6 GHz Wi-Fi is a must for global Internet service providers seeking to deliver multi-gigabit broadband to their subscribers. Enterprises are also future-proofing their networks to enhance productivity and deliver next generation wireless services. It is, therefore, imperative for regulators to enable the entire 6 GHz band to keep pace with this demand.” – Vijay Nagarajan, VP of Marketing, Wireless Communications and Connectivity Division, Broadcom Inc.
“The ever-increasing demand for better and faster Wi-Fi connectivity in various industry verticals such as MDU (multi-dwelling units) and education, and the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 6E by device manufacturers to meet this need via the newly opened 6 GHz band is driving a healthy demand for Wi-Fi 6E APs. Ruckus Networks Wi-Fi 6E Wi-Fi APs enable these industries to capitalize on this 6 GHz opportunity and take advantage of the dramatic capacity and performance increase and reduced interference in this newly opened spectrum.” – said Bart Giordano, SVP and GM of Ruckus Networks, CommScope
“Wi-Fi is the internet for most consumers and high-performance Wi-Fi is necessary to deliver multigigabit internet service that users are expecting. Wi-Fi 6E has improved Wi-Fi performance significantly by bringing the much-needed contiguous spectrum, extra capacity, and lower latency to Wi-Fi backhaul and device connectivity. We expect Wi-Fi 6E momentum to continue well into the 2026 for residential applications.” – said Tuncay Cil, Chief Strategy Officer, DZS
“Wi-Fi 6E raises the bar for wireless connectivity by offering 6 GHz connectivity for the first time. The availability of the 6 GHz spectrum superhighway for Wi-Fi is already driving a renaissance of innovation for new applications and services that require more bandwidth and less latency. This includes everything from immersive education platforms, to healthcare IoT devices critical for patient monitoring, or real-time supply chain and inventory tracking for manufacturers. This also enables enterprises to begin future-proofing their wireless networks today, as Wi-Fi 7 and all future generations of Wi-Fi will be built upon the 6 GHz spectrum foundation launched with Wi-Fi 6E.” – said David Coleman, Director of Wireless in the Office of the CTO, Extreme Networks
“Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E are quickly getting adopted globally and in India, a demand in change for wireless connectivity is forthcoming. GX is closely working with chipset vendors like Qualcomm to enhance its product capabilities and are now on track to look into future Wi-Fi standards.” – said Vipin Jeswani, Product Manager, GX Group
“The clean spectrum offered by Wi-Fi 6E improves user experiences for teleconferencing, video and audio streaming, webcams and cameras used for live-feeds, due to Wi-Fi 6E’s lower latency. Many of our customers are integrating Infineon Wi-Fi 6E products to take advantage of these benefits. Edge AI applications also require real-time blending of data sources requiring low-latency Wi-Fi. We collaborated with partners like NVIDIA to support our Wi-Fi 6E portfolio with the NVIDIA Jetson edge AI platform, reducing time-to-market for our customers.” – said Sivaram Trikutam, Vice President, Wi-Fi Product Line, Infineon
“Great Wi-Fi is essential for our converged connectivity needs at home, at work, at school, and on-the-go. Access to exclusive 6 GHz channels with Wi-Fi 6E enables improved entertainment, collaboration, and productivity experiences. Since early 2021, Intel® and Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6E solutions have been shipping across numerous desktop PC motherboards, gaming PCs, and Intel® vPro® and Evo™ laptops. The Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem has seen impressive growth and we are looking forward to its continued momentum in the years to come.” – Eric A. McLaughlin, VP Client Computing Group & GM Wireless Solutions Group, Intel Corporation
“Adding the 6 GHz band to Wi-Fi 6 has been vital for improving aggregate network performance. This improvement is essential to meet the demand created by the ever-increasing number of connected devices. In 2023, it is estimated there will be approximately 214 million units of Customer Premises Equipment (CPE). Reduced latency, increased speeds, and improved reliability are the hallmarks of a better user experience with next-gen gaming, video conferencing, and VR/AR applications. Wi-Fi 6E delivers on its promise and MaxLinear delivers service providers a comprehensive and highly integrated CPE platform portfolio.” – Doron Tal, VP Broadband Access, MaxLinear
“The past few years have accelerated long-term consumer demand for faster, more reliable connectivity – a trend Wi-Fi 6E is perfectly suited to address solutions at all levels, including the enterprise. In anticipation this shift, we’ve been able to help our customers around the world deliver Wi-Fi 6E to the 6 GHz band for groundbreaking performance across multiple infrastructures enables smartphones, PC’s, augmented reality devices, access points, and routers that maximize spectrum utilization.” – said Rahul Patel, senior vice president and general manager, Connectivity, Cloud and Networking, Qualcomm Technologies
“The transition from Wi-Fi 5 to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E has been happening at a very rapid pace. There has been a transformational change in consumer behavior, due to the recent pandemic and increasing number of Wi-Fi devices being added to networks, where customers now are looking for the best connectivity experience. This has accelerated the momentum of adopting this new Wi-Fi 6E technology. Furthermore, the world is opening the 6 GHz spectrum for use. With Silex product portfolio of Wi-Fi 6E connectivity products, OEM’s are well positioned to use Wi-Fi in this greenfield spectrum.” – said Keith Sugawara, President, Silex Technology America
About Wi-Fi Alliance® | www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 75,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.
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