The good news is that wireless communication is fast changing.
The Wi-Fi band was introduced in 1989 and since then its spectrum or frequency band has multiplied, but it still doesn't seem to be enough.
After Wi-Fi 6E in 2019 and Wi-Fi 6E in 2020, work is now being done on Wi-Fi 7.
The new Wi-Fi standard has now been renamed 801.11be, focusing on Extremely High Throughput (EHT) to introduce real-time apps with higher data speeds.
According to a working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), it will support services such as virtual reality, augmented reality, gaming and homework.
Most Wi-Fi 6 routers support 9.6 Gbps data transfer speed whereas in Wi-Fi 5 it was 3.5 Gbps.
Wi-Fi 6E is largely based on Wi-Fi 6, but the details of the initial draft of Wi-Fi 7 are startling.
Wi-Fi 6 vs. Wi-Fi 7
If the data transfer speed in Wi-Fi 6 is 9.6 Gbps, it will be a maximum of 46 Gbps in Wi-Fi 7.
Similarly the channel bandwidth will be 320 MHz as against 160 MHz while the number of full bandwidth channels will be 6 instead of 7.
Multi-user MIMO will be 16 instead of 8, data transmission will be 4096 QAM instead of 1024 QAM.
So what's the difference?
If 46 Gbps data transfer speed is really available then in real life up to 40 Gbps will probably be available.
Even then, it would be possible to download a 25GB Blu-ray quality movie file in just a few seconds.
Similarly, the number of channels and bandwidth will affect the data exchange between multiple devices.
Wi-Fi 7 will be able to receive and transmit 16 antennas of data and keep in mind that most phones and laptops have 2 antennas for receiving and 3 for transmitting.
So routers with more antennas will be able to get more data transfer speeds to more devices and at least face the problem of slow internet speeds.
How long is Wi-Fi 7 likely to be introduced?
It is currently in the early stages of development and may take many years to reach the general public, with Wi-Fi 6E not yet available to everyone.
But Wi-Fi 7 is already being worked on by technology companies, and MediaTek recently announced that it is launching a demonstration of the new standard of wireless communication.
But no further details were given.
According to the company, some Wi-Fi 7 devices are expected to be available in the market in 2023, but they will be prototype or business devices.
