This begs the question: What will be the impact of the next generation of Wi‑Fi, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)? Do we even need it in the 5G/wireless landscape? I think we need better questions.
Beyond the hype
Of course, some of the messaging around 5G is just typical marketing hype, showcasing the favorable points and ignoring the less favorable ones. For example, 5G with 4 Gbps will be faster than Wi‑Fi (.11ac) with 1.3 Gbps. The immediate counter argument is that Wi‑Fi (.11ax) with 9.6 Gbps will be faster than 5G. But will these speeds be achieved in real life? We’ve seen this before, these glossy promises of high-speed access being wiped away by the hard truth of “no connection in the basement,” or something similar. Cue the collective consumer yawn.
(And by the way, how good will 9.6 Gbps Wi‑Fi be in the basement, if the connection to the home is 300 Mbps, or even less? What problem is this solving?)
If we want a real sense of where the developments are heading, it’s probably a good idea to go a little deeper than marketing headlines. What are the real facts that can guide us? For starters, laws of physics tell us that radio waves (both Wi‑Fi and 5G) have difficulties penetrating objects such as walls and foliage, and their data rates decrease with distance. Radiating more power helps a little, but it also causes unwanted noise, making equipment more expensive. In addition, there are legal maximum output power ratings to adhere to.
There are also economic laws. Cellular (3G/4G/5G) uses licensed bands. Mobile operators (service providers) pay money to use this spectrum and need to roll out a network of (connected) base stations to cover a large area. They then need to recover this money with subscription fees. In such a service area, many users need to be served, sharing the same frequency band over multiple channels.
So, in this frequency band perspective, there’s an interesting technology split between Wi‑Fi and 5G, but do customers really care? Customers care about fast internet access — anywhere — at a decent price. In contrast, operators/providers care about providing good internet service everywhere (at home and around the home) and keeping costs under control. Interestingly enough, with so-called Wi-Fi off-load (where a cellular network off-loads traffic to Wi-Fi connections), the border between the two different technologies is already blurring.
A bit of history can be helpful
It’s interesting to note that the Wi‑Fi world is rooted in the commercial computer industry, while 5G is rooted in the more legislated telephone industry. So, telephone operators (now service providers) have more affinity with 5G than with Wi‑Fi. When most telephone operators started to deliver internet to consumers, it was delivery to the front door. What happened inside the house was the consumer’s responsibility.
The consequence of these histories is that the consumer’s internet connectivity world is split into two parts: mobile (with a subscription and SIM) and stationary (with a router at home). This scenario is now well-established. Of course, wireless internet connectivity can be troublesome, and initially telephone operators used this hassle as an opportunity to promote cellular as an alternative for Wi‑Fi. The good news is this mentality is changing.
Cable operators have also entered the picture. They’ve found that, for many consumers, Wi‑Fi coverage in the home was a major concern. Cable operators responded by extending their service to include good coverage inside the home. This is forcing cellular operators to do the same, as well as to develop a better quality of wireless indoor internet service.
Wi‑Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax)
Better coverage inside the home is one of the key characteristics of the new generation of Wi‑Fi, now called Wi-Fi 6 (based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard). The distributed concept behind this new version of the Wi-Fi standard (also called Wi‑Fi mesh) helps to distribute internet to every room in the home, with the main router at the front door, and small satellite routers (also known as repeaters) on every floor and in every room. This enables internet service providers to sell and support solid internet connectivity everywhere in the home — all good news!
A better way of looking at things
Despite these crossovers, when talking about cellular and Wi‑Fi, it still feels like two separate worlds and that we’re switching back and forth between them, like a car shifting gears. Fortunately, most phones are somewhat smart, and when the Wi‑Fi connection isn’t working, the phone automatically switches to the cellular network. But there’s a real problem if you’re “on the edge of Wi‑Fi” and Wi‑Fi attempts to take back the connection, leaving you in limbo with a nonworking Wi‑Fi and a nonworking cellular connection. In those moments, the solution is to turn off Wi‑Fi to end the battle and avoid poor response times.
But wouldn’t it be better if there were a good hand-off between the Wi‑Fi connection and the cellular connection, so that the user always gets the best performance against the lowest cost?
As a consumer, I wouldn’t care whether I am connected via Wi‑Fi or, in the future, 5G. The system just provides the best connectivity, whether at home and indoors, or outside, or on the road. I would then have one subscription for my internet at home and for my cellular service outdoors — but with a twist. I’m talking about a different way of thinking. In this scenario, a service provider (whether it’s a mobile operator or a cable operator) provides the highest quality wireless internet access service, both at home and on the road. There are many initiatives underway in this area, all in the category of “Wi-Fi off-load,” and in principle the technology is there. But it isn’t mainstream yet, due to multiple competing and legacy interests.
The “right” choice
It may be clearer that the customer genuinely isn’t interested in next-generation Wi‑Fi or in the “next G.” The consumer simply wants the best internet connection — anywhere, at any time and at the most affordable price. This is the way everyone — whether cellular providers, hotspot providers or internet service providers — can think about how to deliver the best service most efficiently to their vast subscription base.
Key is to envision 5G and Wi‑Fi 6 working together to implement this, instead of playing one against the other. There should be no “right” technology choice or choosing the one best technology for a given application.
And hopefully this different way of thinking will also help to concentrate on today’s real bottleneck — how to get high-speed internet to the home.
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