5G Wifi technology, 802.11ac, nearing release

[HotHotHeat]

Wireless 802.11ac will soon be replacing 802.11n as the new wireless standard. Why is this awesome?

The new standard will initially offer up to 1300Mbps speed (compared to the top 450Mbps of the existing N standard), with the capability to scale up to 6.8Gbps in the future.
The new AC standard also uses the low 5Ghz band and incorporates a standardized beamforming technology, which improves the transmission of wireless signals around physical obstacles such as masonry walls.

Rest of article: http://ces.cnet.com/8301-33372_1-573...s-at-ces-2012/

Anyone that has steadily upgraded their wifi routers will remember the not so long ago period when streaming a video over wifi was nearly impossible.

I can't wait for this. Early adopters for the new tech are Motorola, Microsoft, Netgear, Belkin, LG, Huawei, Lenovo, and 'others'. Apple was one of the first companies to adopt 802.11n, and are also apparently part of the list.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Standard finalization late this year, common in 2015 according to wiki. Cool.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Man those are going to be some pricey routers when they first come out. Looking forward to this, looking more forward to them becoming affordable.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

Standard finalization late this year, common in 2015 according to wiki. Cool.

Hopefully this is the case - the length of the draft process for N was ridiculous.

[OldDutch]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Man those are going to be some pricey routers when they first come out. Looking forward to this, looking more forward to them becoming affordable.

The ones in the article have a est. price of $200. Considering my E4200 N router cost about $170 retail last year, looks like we may get a deal.

[McG]

yay for faster pr0n!

[J Diddy]

Maybe with 802.11ac we will finally get close to the 450Mbps that N advertises.

[Notorious Honey Badger]

for the techies...will wireless ever really be better than wired?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by Notorious Honey Badger

for the techies...will wireless ever really be better than wired?

Faster? No.

But being wired in is often costly or cumbersome enough that wireless is certainly better.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Personally I prefer wired over wireless any day of the week. Any equipment in my house tha does not fall under the "portable" category will always get a wired connection. However there is always that one room in the house that you can't get cable to for whatever reason. This is the exception to my rule.

[Street Pharmacist]

I'm relatively knowledgeable, but I cannot see how this affects the average person. Router speed is not the bottleneck for the average consumer is it? I can see this helping the corporate/commercial side, but is my computer/tablet/phone going to be faster?

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

I'm relatively knowledgeable, but I cannot see how this affects the average person. Router speed is not the bottleneck for the average consumer is it? I can see this helping the corporate/commercial side, but is my computer/tablet/phone going to be faster?

For data being brought into your home, no, but for streaming HD content (and moving large files wirelessley) within your home yes.

Routers still have far more jam then what incoming internet connections can throw at them (like downloading a movie, game file, etc...) but dont' have quite enough Jam to be able to stream HD content to TV's and such within your home reliably.