Samsung says its technology will open up the door to data transmission speeds of up to 4.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), or 575 megabytes (MB) per second. This would be about five times faster than the current ceiling for Wi-Fi speeds for consumer electronics devices, which stands at around 866 megabits per second (Mbps), or 108MB per second.
So, for example, a 1 gigabyte (GB) movie could be transferred between devices in fewer than 3 seconds, and uncompressed high-definition videos can be streamed from mobile devices to TVs in real time.
“Unlike the existing 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi technologies, Samsung’s 802.11ad standard 60GHz Wi-Fi technology maintains maximum speed by eliminating co-channel interference, regardless of the number of devices using the same network,” claims Samsung’s announcement.
The company says it has solved the speed-killing issues that come with millimeter waves, which travel by line-of-sight and are stymied by walls and other obstacles, by making use of wide-coverage beam-forming antennae and micro beam-forming control technology, among other fancy-sounding things.
The company expects to integrate this new Wi-Fi technology in a wide range of products, including audiovisual devices, medical devices and telecommunications equipment. Samsung expects commercialization of the unlicensed 60GHz Wi-Fi band spectrum as early as next year, a bit later than expected.
