Fixed and mobile internet usage is growing rapidly as our world depends more on the wireless spectrum, thanks in large part to the great migration to working from home. A May 2020 report found that overall internet traffic grew by more than 40% between February and April, with video streaming accounting for 58% of all traffic.1 Much of this traffic is being driven away from mobile back to fixed Wi-Fi access points.
The arrival of Wi-Fi 6E will help to alleviate the congestion on existing Wi-Fi networks. In response to the need for greater reliability, access, and performance, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in April 2020 to open up the 6-GHz band (5.925 to 7.125 GHz) for unlicensed use.2 Adding more than 1.2 GHz of high-frequency spectrum, the announcement represents the largest addition to Wi-Fi since the original 802.11b standard of the late 1990s and paves the way for the Internet of Things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), and other high-bandwidth, low-latency applications.