FCC now has an entry U6EP.
The key here is operative frequency with 6 GHz range. So this is WiFi 6E Access Point.
I will try editing this article later for more detail when I get chance. But for now, this is a breaking news!
Why do we care about WiFi 6E?
This is not just another version fo WiFi 6.
The main feature of WiFi 6E is opening up new Frequency spectrum (6 GHz) for WiFi, which have more and wider channels.
So what does it mean to us as a consumer?
There are two main reasons why we care as consumer:
- Less interference = congestion
- Faster speed = faster throughput + lower latency
We are already seeing the benefit of less congestion with 2.4 GHz vs. 5 GHz. 2.4 GHz are slower because of bandwidth but also it is rather more unstable because of network congestion i.e. interference. Many IoT devices operating on the frequency but also you may be seeing neighbor’s router Wi-Fi signal. Some non-WiFi device also interferes with the spectrum. In contrast, 5 GHz is less congested and therefore devices connected to the band is more stable. However, having many devices in one household that may be operating in the 5 GHz now a day could still result in congestion, especially in a setting like multiple family members using tablets, phones etc. You can read detail about this if interested here.
The second benefit is faster speed. This may be partly from the fact you have less device connecting to the band therefore, you have dedicated, traffic free lane so you can go at the full speed. However, there is also another major potential gain. That is the channel width. One of the reason why 5 GHz is much faster than 2.4 GHz is usually 2.4 GHz is limited to 20 MHz Channel width while most consumer 5 GHz spectrum uses 80 MHz. To simply put, this is like a number of lanes on freeway. So 4x more channel width = 4 times more traffic can go through at once. If you are interested about this in more detail, you can read here.
With 6 GHz opening up, 160MHz channel width becomes possible to use in regular homes. Practically, WiFi 6 (non-E) with typical 2×2 client device usually give 800 Mbps for peak throughput. WiFi 6E using 160 MHz could double it so we are looking the speed 1.6 Gbps i.e. well over 1 Gbps. This would match the typical throughput of the wired connection i.e. 1 Gigabit*.
*Technically, wired connection is duplex so both up and down can happen simultaneously at full speed while Wi-Fi cannot do that, but usually up and down of Wi-Fi is not 50:50.
Why do we not care about WiFi 6E?
In order to appreciate new WiFi standard/technology benefit, you need both access points/router and client device supporting the standard. There are only few Android devices like Samsung Galaxy S21 series that currently support WiFi 6E. No Apple product has the support yet and they are not retrospectively upgradable so one will need new device. There is a rumor that next generation iPhone may support it, but not officially announced yet.
With half duplex of WiFi, if you have wired connection option 1 Gbps (Cat 5 and up) is still superior to the WiFi 6E. So wired desktops may not see any benefit.
You may not really do anything benefiting from the speed boost. If you are just streaming online movies, bottleneck may be on the internet side from the throughput stand point of view. The latency bottleneck is most likely from internet connection rather than Wi-Fi so you may also not see benefit here.
Lastly, 6 GHz band is not approved for use yet in all countries, so if your country has not opened up the option, you are out of luck. You can check the current status of Wi-Fi 6E in your country here.