Superfast Wi-Fi will come to our devices next year as WiGig has been certified.
Back in 2013, the Wi-Fi Alliance and the Wireless Gigabit Alliance worked together on developing a 60GHz wireless standard, and decided to make the partnership official to make the most out of the collaboration.
Now in 2016, WiGig has been finally certified by The Wi-Fi Alliance after several years of engagement with the Wireless Gigabit Alliance. WiGig is a high-speed, 60GHz standard also known as 802.11 ad. It uses beamforming that can yield speeds of up to 8 Gbps, nearly equivalent to 1GB per second for a distance up to 10 meters (33 feet).
According to Engadget, the Wi-Fi Alliance has begun to certify routers, laptops, smartphones and other devices, wherein WiGig is said to double Wi-Fi's current top speed. The Alliance said it'll be in "marquee" smartphones next year, plus as much as 180 million devices sporting the new standard will be rolled out next year. The group also unveiled the first five WiGig certified devices from Dell, Intel and Qualcomm, among others.
Though the new standard works in a very limited range, VP of marketing at the Wi-Fi Alliance Kevin Robinson says "We talk about it as an in-room technology." Which clearly means that even with the equipment that supports the new standard, users will only probably get those speeds within the room where the router is located, The Verge has learned.
The WiGig operates in the less congested 60GHz spectrum, the Alliance notes. Manufacturers can implement "handoff" technology, which means that the phone and the router can automatically switch to 2.4 or 5 GHz Wi-Fi if users leave the room.
802.11 ad is three times faster at eight Gbps Most current devices can only hit 600 Mbps, but in theory, 802.11 ad should make it faster. Not to mention that your device must support the standard too, not only the router.
