A new Wi-Fi standard expected to come in 2019. Processor company Intel recently announced that they will be manufacturing processors that comply with the said standard within this year. Called 802.11ax, this standard promises faster wireless internet speeds.
The new Wi-Fi standard is expected to be faster, but the real improvement is its efficiency over multiple connections. 802.11ax is expected to perform better even when there are lots of connected devices. Those fond of hotspots or public Wi-Fi would benefit from the new standard.
Any household with lots of devices connected to a central router would benefit from 802.11ax, as well.
Intel may have been one of the first to produce 802.11ax chips. It is expected that most other companies will not make 802.11ax compatible devices until 2019.
This time frame is also emphasized in an e-mail by the Wi-Fi Alliance to The Verge. The Alliance is the group that sets up new Wi-Fi standards internationally.
In the e-mail, the Alliance said that most companies will not manufacture devices compliant to 802.11ax this year. This is due to product certification.
Product certification is the process that pushes industry to commit to a standard, and it will happen next year. It is then reasonable to expect that 802.11ax components will be manufactured next year, as well.
There are exceptions, of course. Not all companies wait until product certification to commit to a standard and Intel is one of the early adopters. ASUS is another company that will manufacture routers compliant to the 802.11ax standard.
Mobile processor manufacturer Qualcomm was even earlier than Intel, as they have produced 802.11ax compliant chips as early as February of this year.
Intel will have 802.11ax 2x2 and 4x4 routers before the end of the year. These devices will support xDSL, cable, and fiber connections.
