WiFi-6: What is It?

Today, many of our devices, apps, and videos require more and more data to run them. To combat this, Wi-Fi routers and other device companies which use Wi-Fi are enabling their devices to handle this influx of data usage and maximize customers' usability of their internet bandwidth. Wi-Fi 6 has enabled high-speed internet subscribers to get the most out of their wireless routers. Wi-Fi 6 is now being implemented into many new devices such as cell phones, and computers. In its essence Wi-Fi 6 can do what you’d expect it to do, that is connect you to the internet. Now, it will have the added effects of being able to connect you to the internet much more efficiently as well as speeding up your connections in the process. Wi-Fi 6 will see a bump in speed from 3.5 Gbps which was seen in Wi-Fi 5, to 9.6 Gbps. These speeds are just theoretical maximums in terms of speed which most consumers will never reach or use. The typical average download speed in the United States is 72 Mbps. This average download speed is less than one percent of what these new routers are capable of for maximum speed. One of the huge benefits of this higher max speed is that it isn’t just going to one device, it is split up among your devices in your home which in turn gives your more potential speed for each device. This is important as over the years more and more Wi-Fi consuming devices are being added to people’s homes. When Wi-Fi 5 first came out, the average U.S. household had about 5 Wi-Fi connected devices, in today’s world, the average number of devices per household is about 9. Many companies estimate that this number is only going up and will reach 50 devices in several years. Personally, in my own home, I have over 20 devices connected at a time which may sound excessive, but it really is not when considering phones, computers, TVs, cameras, watches and numerous other Wi-Fi devices.  Adding devices to your network takes a toll on many aspects of your home's wireless network such as the slowing down of downloads and uploads. Wi-Fi 6 technology will help mitigate these issues of adding numerous devices to your network. It allows easy communication with devices and allows the router to send data to multiple devices in the same broadcast. These features will help keep connections strong even when more devices are added to your network and pulling more data.  Current Wi-Fi 5 networks and routers may get bogged down when they see more devices connected, but the change to Wi-Fi 6 will help buffer these issues and keep speeds and bandwidth evenly amongst your devices. Wi-Fi 6 routers are also designed to keep all your devices up to date more effectively with the amounts of data that they require.  Each of those devices’ speeds won’t necessarily be faster than what they can reach today on a high-quality network, but they’re more likely to maintain those top speeds even in busier environments. You can imagine that this would be useful in a home where one person is streaming something like Netflix, another is playing an online video game, someone else is video chatting, and a whole bunch of smart home devices — a door lock, thermostat, lights, cameras and so on — are all checking in at once. Mid Century provides our customers with the Calix Gigaspire router with 2^nd generation Wi-Fi 6 technology as well as an app that allows you to manage and access tons of useful features within your network.