Qualcomm to Produce Tri-band Wi-Fi chips

PandaProf25 · July 4, 2014

The original article can be found here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/07/tri-band-wi-fi-chips-for-multi-gigabit-streaming-coming-from-qualcomm/

I think the idea of tri-band wifi is very interesting form a mobile stand point. Personally I still think we're years away from having the same kind of user experience on Wi-Fi that we get using a wired connection, but these kinds of chips could get us much closer. For me it would make the end user experience on my say tablet or phone that much smoother when I'm on Wi-Fi while at the office or home, there have been times I'm using my tablet waiting for it to load a page when I just give up and go into my office area and load whatever I needed on the computer.

While this may not seem like a big deal it can be a pain when moving about the house even though my network has been set up to provide the best possible coverage for the house. Having faster speeds and the possibility of better coverage over an area being able to switch between bands is an exciting prospect.

What are your thoughts on this?

Nomelas · July 5, 2014

Well, one great thing about 802.11ad being on 60GHz band is basically zero congestion. The bad side is with such a high frequency you really need to amp up the power to get it to reach far distances and good luck getting the signal to go through anything, direct line of sight basically required.

Tri-band just lowers the signal drop chance going between frequencies (and boosts speeds when connected to all 3) basically not much different than 802.11ac dual band in almost all cases except when close to your router (in direct line of sight). You will need a compatible router as well and there wont be any on the market for a while, I was under the impression there never would be but I guess I was wrong.

It would be interesting to see 802.11ad used for other things though like Bluetooth replacement, NFC or other wireless peripherals with its high speeds though needing direct line of sight to be reliable is a huge flaw.

I think this is just Qualcomm trying to be as current as possible and we won't be seeing this being useful anytime soon.