Wi-Fi is about to get a whole lot more exciting in Canada. The Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) announced on May 19 that it has opened up a new swath of Wi-Fi spectrum in the 6 GHz frequency range, tripling the currently available spectrum which will deliver faster Wi-Fi speeds.
This new spectrum will enable Wi-Fi 6E, a new class of Wi-Fi devices that aims to address the congestion of current Wi-Fi systems. Today’s Wi-Fi operated in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz range. With these bands becoming increasingly congested, Wi-Fi devices need new, uncrowded spectrums to reach their max speeds. The new 6 GHz band will provide nearly 1,200 MHz of additional spectrum to support future Wi-Fi devices.
“The new 6 GHz spectrum allocation for Wi-Fi 6E provides exactly what future Wi-Fi-based services need, and that is more bandwidth,” said Chris Beg, wireless systems architect at Cognitive Systems in an email to the publication. “With the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, the limited spectrum causes contention as the number of networks and users in a given area increases, making obtaining wider channels difficult and unreliable.”
Although Wi-Fi 6E doesn’t support higher max speeds than Wi-Fi 6, having access to higher frequencies enables wider channels, which makes it more likely to reach that peak speed. Think of channels like a highway: the wider the road is, the more vehicles can travel in parallel.
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