FCC Expands 6GHz Wi-Fi Band To More Devices And Google Is Stoked, Why This Matters
The Federal Communications Comission (FCC) has opened up the WiFi 6E 6GHz frequency band to a whole new wave of low-powered devices. The move is designed to improve peer to peer communication speeds with devices such as virtual reality helmets, augmented reality glasses, smart watches, and smartphones to name but a few. The FCC’s decision to open up additional 6GHz frequencies could have broad implications, with Google caliming it's a "big win" for Pixel owners and American consumers as a whole.
Once fully utilized, the additional 6GHz frequencies will effectively enable future low-powered device using the bands to have fast local wireless transfers. Specifically, the FCC has regulated an additional 850MHz spectrum of the 6GHz band to low-powered devices, featuring VLP operations in the U-NII-5 and U-NiII-7 portions of the 6GHz range, to enable fast and largely interference-free wireless transmissions at low power and short ranges.
Leveraging these additional frequencies for peer to peer wireless communications could offer an array of benefits moving forward, thanks to the low-power, low-latency, but high-bandwidth nature of the connection.
Google, Meta (Facebook), Apple and Microsoft (among others) have all advocated for the use of these frequencies, asking specifically for them to be opened up for public use. As a result, we should see new and potentially current devices supporting these new frequency ranges soon.
