Comparing the blue channel map on the right with the green and grey ones in the middle and on the left, you can see how much more bandwidth 6GHz will introduce to the WiFi experience (Image: Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.).

WiFi 6E is a Much Bigger Deal Than the Name Suggests

Like many shoemakers, I should be ashamed that my children are running around barefoot. Actually, no. That’s a metaphor. It’s my communications infrastructure that’s running around barefoot. I’m a tech analyst with an embarrassingly ancient network and connection to the outside world.

How did it get this way? Neglect and time, as always, were big factors. Laziness was also in there somewhere. Hey, it was great in 2005 when I got Comcast cable. A few years later, I threw in an Arris cable modem and a LinkSys switch. Although most things in my office are connected by wired Ethernet (what’s that?), the wireless networks around the house are a hodgepodge of power-line distribution and 2.4GHz and 5.GHz access points of venerable vintage. Guest and homey networks live side by side, and voluminous SSIDs (network names) abound on any client device hapless enough to view “available networks,” which include all of my neighbors’ as well my own wide array.

So, what’s with the confessional? And why now? Because now I’m determined to fix all this with a major upgrade, and it’s okay to admit you’re a drunk if you have a program to get sober. Which begs the question, when, exactly, am I going to undertake this life-changing transformation?

Ay, and there’s the rub. There’s a piece of the puzzle, unavailable today, that…