Last May we wrote a blog titled “Six Is Better Than Five.” This is what we said about WiFi 6 just nine months ago:

“Let’s break down the improvements that come with WiFi 6. Faster Speeds. We’ve seen data transfer speeds up to three times faster than the speeds we were tracking when our client was using WiFi 5 technology.

Less bandwidth congestion. WiFi 6 can accommodate many more devices to be connected at the same time while also reducing latency. So if you are on a Zoom call while someone else on the network is streaming a movie, it is far less likely that either user will experience the dreaded jitter that causes disruptions in voice and video transmission.”

We pointed out some really great improvements over WiFi 5. Now just a short time later, here comes WiFi 7 with even greater improvements.

WiFi 7 first came onto our radar when a JitterWorks colleague bought a Google Pixel 8 cellular phone. The phone has WiFi 7 capabilities, but good luck finding a WiFi 7 router this early in the game. They are, however, well on their way and should be ubiquitous by the end of the year.

When breaking down the improvements WiFi 6 brought, we pointed out the importance of faster data transfer speeds and reduced latency. Two key network performance metrics that JitterWorks has been analyzing for years.

It’s been well documented that we are all for technology improvements that offer faster bandwidth speed – WiFi 6 boasts up to 10 Gbps of data transfer, as stated above, over three times what WiFi 5 could provide. Well, WiFi 7 is touting data transfer speeds up to 46 Gbps. That’s insane and probably the very definition of overkill.

And if you read our blogs, you know how we feel about lower latency. In a very early blog titled “How Jitter Works” we wrote:

“Internet Service Providers sell you their services based on how much bandwidth they can provide. Everybody identifies bandwidth with speed. We’ll get more into bandwidth in future blogs. It is very important. But when you are considering network and Internet speed, what you should be more concerned with is latency.

While bandwidth is the star of the show, latency is the part of the supporting cast that drives the scene. A consistent, productive Internet experience relies on both high bandwidth and low latency for optimum performance. But it’s latency that provides the speed.”

So with WiFi 7 boasting even lower latency than WiFi 6 all we can say is what we concluded in an earlier blog:

“We don’t think anyone, circumstances permitting, would turn down better network performance.”