Wifi 7 Standards and Information: The Need for Speed

Wi-Fi 7 is the next evolution of the 802.11 standard, specifically 802.11be. The current approved standard is 802.11ax, or Wifi 6. Changes to the modulation format and frequency allocation improve the theoretical maximum bit rate from 9.6 GBps for WiFi-6 to 46.4 GBps for Wifi 7. Practical upload and download rates will likely never attain these speeds, even if the wired back-haul existed to support it. For most purposes, Wifi 6 will meet most user needs. Only seriously taxing applications, such as virtual reality video streaming, could take advantage of speeds in excess of 9.6G. But it’s hard to say how the computing bandwidth needs of the average consumer will change over the next ten years, and carriers are constantly increasing wired bandwidths without additional cost to the user. Perhaps the need will grow into the technology. Fortunately, Wifi 7 is designed to be backward-compatible with Wifi 6, so other than higher equipment cost there would be no harm in early adoption.