Earlier this week, Samsung announced that it had developed new 802.11ad Wi-Fi technology which will allow speeds to increase by up to 5 times. That means that the current maximum limit of 866Mbps (108 MB per second) per device will increase to 4.6Gbps (575 MB per second).
At these speeds, a 1GB movie would transfer from one device to another in less than 3 seconds. This would also make real time full HD streaming between devices and TVs possible.
What allows Samsung to increase Wi-Fi speeds so dramatically is a shift from the usual 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands used by routers to the 60 GHz channel. However, the idea is not new. The standard itself and the frequency band have been used by multiple devices on the market. The trade-off is that higher frequency means shorter range and the inability of the signals to penetrate walls.
Samsung’s triumph lies in the fact that they have overcome these challenges. According to a press release, the company has done this by using high performance modem technologies and developing wide coverage beam-forming antenna. Usual routers just broadcast the Wi-Fi signal in all directions. Beam-forming technology physically locates devices and then sends focused signals directly to them.
The company plans to implement the technology across a wide variety of products including audio, visual and medical devices and telecommunications equipment. It will also feature prominently in Samsung’s ‘SmartHome’ push. As 60 GHz is an unlicensed spectrum, we could see commercial availability as soon as next year. However, adoption in consumer products is expected to be a bit slower.
We should sign off by mentioning that increased Wi-Fi speeds do not mean your internet will be faster. Internet speeds in Pakistan are limited by internet service providers like PTCL, not by router speeds. But this technology would definitely help you in file transfers across your home or office networks.