THE TRUTH ABOUT WI-FI 6E

(and why you might not want to upgrade)

- KENNY YEO

Earlier in May 2023, the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) finally allocated new airwaves in the 6GHz band to support the deployment of the Wi-Fi 6E standard. I say finally because Wi-Fi 6E isn’t exactly new. The first Wi-Fi 6E routers were announced in the second half of 2020. As is the case with any new networking standard, router manufacturers are claiming substantial improvements in networking performance, but is it true? And should you upgrade? Here’s what you need to know about Wi-Fi 6E.

Comparing 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz frequency spectrums. 

What exactly is Wi-Fi 6E? 

Wi-Fi 6 operates in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands. Wi-Fi 6E improves on it by adding a new and unoccupied 6GHz band. Despite the higher frequency, the maximum theoretical speeds are unchanged. Yes, it delivers the same maximum speeds as “regular” Wi-Fi 6.

If you want to get a bit more technical, this means with an 80MHz channel, you’d be getting around 600Mbps per stream; and with a 160MHz channel, you could get up to 1,200Mbps. These figures are exactly the same as Wi-Fi 6.