New Wireless Service Is Faster. Have you noticed that many public or private wireless networks at offices, restaurants, coffee shops, libraries, and hotels are getting slower? With the increase in laptops, tablets, and especially smartphones, the wireless networks are getting congested, much like our highways. Contrary to popular belief, many of the connection problems that home or mobile users encounter are often not related to their broadband service but rather to the Wi-Fi routers.
A new Wi-Fi technology- 802.11ac – has the potential of four times as fast as the current standard 802.11n Wi-Fi technology. The Wi-Fi Alliance industry group began certifying products capable of running on a faster and more reliable wireless network technology. Smartphones, computers and routers with the new Wi-Fi technology are now becoming available either online or at local technology stores. Older laptops and tablets can use a new USB Wi-Fi adapter using the later technology.
The number of Wi-Fi-connected devices in U.S. households has doubled during the past five years, according to Wakefield Research. Smartphones, tablets and even appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines now compete with televisions, gaming consoles and laptops for a share of a Wi-Fi home network bandwidth. Increasingly, many of those devices are also displaying hours of video a day, putting incredible demand on the Wi-Fi or cellphone networks. If smartphone users can’t find enough speed with their cellular carrier, they can easily switch to a local Wi-Fi network.
The fifth generation of Wi-Fi technology will resolve those congestion problems by increasing the speed and moving to a new frequency
spectrum in the five-gigahertz spectrum. This will ultimately reduce the congestion with the higher speeds and have more frequencies
available for public and private use. With the new smart (Internet based) TVs coming on the market, higher Wi-Fi speed routers will be required for multiple smart TVs in any household.
Bob Larson is a technologist and our Marketing Director for 50 Plus. Contact Bob at Email Bob for more info on this column.