In our last blog we teased: “Staying on top of your network performance and introducing the newest technologies to help your network run as fast and smoothly as possible. In fact, we will discuss at length the benefits of upgrading your router to WiFi 6.” Here you go.

WiFi 6 has been around for about three years now, yet most legacy networks are still running WiFi 5. In fact, we have seen first hand that even now new builders are still using the old technology when installing WiFi systems. Not that there’s anything wrong with WiFi 5, we simply want to point out the improvements with the latest version.

We don’t think anyone, circumstances permitting, would turn down better network performance. Faster speeds, less bandwidth congestion and longer battery life for connected devices are among the upgrades that come with WiFi 6.

We’ve written in the past about the benefits of keeping up with the times. In our blog titled “Tools Of The Trade” we wrote:

“Using outdated hardware can and will negate the positive impact of the advancements in Internet technology.” 

“It’s easy for a company on a budget to use the old philosophy, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And, to some extent, that old router, switch, firewall, wireless access point and ethernet cable seem to be holding up. So why, after spending the money to upgrade to 350 Mbps of bandwidth, does your network still seem sluggish?…. If your business is still running an old-school network infrastructure, your new high-speed connection may be stopping at the door.”

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.

Longer battery life for connected devices such as smartphones, tablets and surveillance cameras. This is accomplished with the development of Target Wake Time technology. The short explanation is that WiFi 6 allows the connected devices to decide when they want to start sending and receiving data. Your smartphone need not be a part of any data transfer between the router and the doorbell camera. So your phone can conserve energy when it’s nap time. 

Can you imagine if every text you sent and received was part of a group text? Every time Aunt Alice reaches out to cousin Barney you are an unwilling participant in the conversation.

** WiFi 6 routers are backward compatible with your existing connected devices.