Qualcomm Debuts Its First Wi-Fi 6E Network Solutions Promising Faster Speeds, Lower Latency

This is perhaps the biggest upgrade that Wi-Fi has seen since it first burst onto the scene in commercial products roughly two decade ago. Devices running on 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E will of course be backwards compatible with existing 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi solutions.

Qualcomm is jumping into the Wi-Fi 6E fray with the launch of the FastConnect 6700 and FastConnect 6900 wireless solutions. The FastConnect 6700 is capable of delivering speak speeds of 3Gbps, while the FastConnect 6900 dominates all available mobile Wi-Fi solutions with peak speeds of 3.6Gbps. These networking solutions will likely find their way into future Snapdragon SoCs (a la the unreleased Snapdragon 875).

As we mentioned, both support 2.4GHz, 5Ghz, and 6GHz bands, with 160MHz channel support on the latter two bands. Compared to its lesser sibling, the FastConnect 6900 also offers exclusive 4-stream Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) with multi-band capabilities. Other perks of Qualcomm’s new Wi-Fi 6E include support for the latest Bluetooth 5.2 standard and Qualcomm’s proprietary aptX Bluetooth codec.

In addition, Qualcomm has announced the following solutions for future Wi-Fi 6E routers:

• Qualcomm Networking Pro 1610: Supports up to 16 streams of Wi-Fi 6/E connectivity, a 2.2 GHz Quad-core A53 processor, 8x8 support for huge multi-user gain, and 10.8 Gbps peak speed.
• Qualcomm Networking Pro 1210: Supports up to 12 streams of Wi-Fi 6/E connectivity, a 2.2 GHz Quad-core A53 processor, and 8.4 Gbps peak speed.
• Qualcomm Networking Pro 810: Supports up to 8 streams of Wi-Fi 6/E connectivity, a 1.8 GHz Quad-core A53 processor, and 6.6 Gbps peak speed.
• Qualcomm Networking Pro 610: Supports up to 6 streams of Wi-Fi 6/E connectivity, a 1.8 GHz Quad-core A53 processor, and 5.4 Gbps peak speed

“Wi-Fi Alliance members have mobilized around 6 GHz in an unprecedented way, and we’re excited to see Wi-Fi 6E solutions rapidly coming to market with the availability of new unlicensed spectrum in the U.S.,” said Kevin Robinson, who serves as the Senior VP of Marketing for the Wi-Fi Alliance. “Solutions like these from Qualcomm will help users fully experience Wi-Fi in 6 GHz and quickly benefit from faster speeds, higher capacity, and lower latency applications.”

The first products using these new Wi-Fi 6E networking solutions are expected to debut in late 2020.