The flip side of wireless communications

Speed, adaptability and global reach, the impact that new mobile phone technologies have on people, such as G or Wifi networks, is significant. Today, it is unthinkable to operate daily without this type of service, which has allowed us to continue developing and improving different areas of this transcendental technology of the 21st century. In this context, the 5G and Wi-Fi 6 network versions mark a milestone of this new decade, presenting significant technological improvements for the IT business segments, service providers and consumer networks.

Although the new 5G mobile network connectivity system will be focused on providing people with better connectivity, allowing advances for example in the automation and use of the Internet of Things (IoT), there is still for exploring how many of those things are possible to perform in addition to Wi-Fi 6.

Cristián Gómez, telecommunications analyst at the international consulting firm IDC, emphasizes that this state-of-the-art wireless communication technology – in which the Institution for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) has been working since 2013 – has the most important advances, the increase of the connection speed, compared to the previous standard, in addition to focusing on more efficiently managing large groups of Wi-Fi devices, simultaneously. A technology developed and designed in dense environments, such as large calls for people, such as stadiums, auditoriums and conference rooms, just to name a few.

Gomez warns that along with Wi-Fi 6 updates comes a wide range of WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) equipment available on the market, “such as high and low consumption products that will give companies advanced features to better manage their networks and obtain greater visibility and analysis, generating new business opportunities and expanding the use cases for wireless connectivity in their businesses, ”explains the IDC analyst.

However, with significant advances in 5G and Wi-Fi 6 emerging simultaneously in 2019, a solid debate has begun to circulate between IT professionals and industry experts: will 5G displace Wi-Fi? When in doubt that arises if it will be more appropriate to implement 5G or Wi-Fi 6 for business solutions, from IDC they indicate what will be the task of each organization or company to evaluate both technologies and determine which one is the best, either from the technical point of view, as operational cost of implementation and management. Being able to compete with each other, complement each other or act independently, this depending on the case of use and solution that the company is looking for. Indeed, for Cristián Gómez “this will mean a union of the variety of stakeholders, including network providers, operators and providers of devices and identities to enable the chosen functionality.”

Currently the client devices that support Wi-Fi 6 are beginning to reach the market, as well as some products compatible with Wi-Fi 6, both infrastructure equipment and end-user devices, which will be seen more frequently in the face of 2020. Similar to the growth curve of previous Wi-Fi standards, IDC expects Wi-Fi 6 to become the enterprise WLAN standard by 2023.