By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
Microsoft announces new Windows 11 ‘Preview Build’ with Wi-Fi 7
If anything is going to drive Wi-Fi 7 market adoption fast, it would be Wi-Fi 7-capable PCs, and Microsoft is doing its part to make it happen as soon as possible. This week Microsoft released its ‘Windows Insider Preview Build 26063’ on their so-called ‘Canary Channel’, which is an opportunity for developers to get practical experience with the new release.
Wi-Fi 7 capability is indeed the main new feature of this preview build. The full commercial release of the Wi-Fi 7-capable next major Windows 11 update is slated for 2H2024, sources say. In general expect plenty of Wi-Fi 7 end-user device announcement in connection with MWC happening next week.
First Wi-Fi 7 deployment at a major stadium by Boldyn & CommScope RUCKUS
Well – we’re stretching this news item a little, because while it is true the Boldyn has deployed Wi-Fi 7 APs at Camping World Stadium in Orlando (a 65,000-seat venue), the network is only live in certain indoor areas of the venue. Outdoor 6 GHz Wi-Fi is still not permitted without AFC services, and the FCC only approved such services yesterday (I suppose Wi-Fi 7 with 6 GHz turned off could be deployed in a stadium at this time although that would seem less meaningful).
That said it is true that CommScope RUCKUS has consistently been among the first to deploy live Wi-Fi 7 networks including at CES 2024 with Boingo. The company says throughput with Wi-Fi 7 has increased by 60% over Wi-Fi 6E (reaching 900 Mbps) and that the services is more than 4 times faster than previous generations while latency is reduced by 75%. Full story here.
Qualcomm’s geolocation service for AFC wins FCC approval
Qualcomm has been one of the frontrunners in delivering the AFC required for standard power 6 GHz operation – and this week the company took another stride to enable cost-effective introduction of AFC. Qualcomm’s geolocation service (a part of the end-to-end AFC service provided by Qualcomm) has now been approved by the FCC. According to a post by Qualcomm SVP Rahul Patel (see below), geolocation regulatory requirements can now be fulfilled without GNSS (satellite) receivers in the APs.
RouteThis launches ‘Quality of Install’ (QoI) home Wi-Fi install solution
Canada-based RouteThis this week introduced what they call a ‘Quality of Install’ (QoI) solution aimed at improving the home Wi-Fi quality of experience as delivered by ISPs. The company says “QoI is composed of five key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow ISPs to quantitatively track, measure and validate home WiFi installation success, ensuring consistently high Quality of Experience (QoE) inside the customer’s home from day one.” RouteThis is well known for providing hardware-agnostic Wi-Fi troubleshooting and customer care solutions for ISPs. RouteThis will be participating in our Wi-Fi World Congress in Sarasota, Florida this April. Read more here.
/Claus.
