MediaTek, one of the first adopters of Wi-Fi 7 technology, today announced that it is working closely within Wi-Fi Alliance to launch a complete first wave of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 products, which will be featured as part of MediaTek's global ecosystem showcase at CES 2024. In an era where people rely on artificial intelligence to improve their lives and productivity, a fast and reliable network ensures consumers and professionals have the connectivity needed to utilize the latest AI tools. These devices, powered by MediaTek Filogic Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 chipsets, represent fast, reliable and always-on connected experiences for a wide variety of consumer and enterprise products, including residential gateways, mesh routers, televisions, streaming devices, smartphones, tablets, laptops, and more.

"As a technology leader, we make significant investments in formulating the standards that drive the industry, in addition to developing products that utilize those standards," said Alan Hsu, corporate vice president at MediaTek. "The recent announcement of our family of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 chipset solutions has enabled us to work with Wi-Fi Alliance to provide testbeds for devices on both the access point and client sides, streamlining the product certification process for manufacturers."

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 is here, introducing powerful new features that boost Wi-Fi performance and improve connectivity across a variety of environments. Cutting-edge capabilities in Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 enable innovations that rely on high throughput, deterministic latency, and greater reliability for critical traffic. New use cases - including multi-user AR/VR/XR, immersive 3-D training, electronic gaming, hybrid work, industrial IoT, and automotive - will advance as a result of the latest Wi-Fi generation. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 represents the culmination of extensive collaboration and innovation within Wi-Fi Alliance, facilitating worldwide product interoperability and a robust, sophisticated device ecosystem.

Wi-Fi 7 will see rapid adoption across a broad ecosystem with more than 233 million devices expected to enter the market in 2024, growing to 2.1 billion devices by 2028. Smartphones, PCs, tablets, and access points (APs) will be the earliest adopters of Wi-Fi 7, and customer premises equipment (CPE) and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) equipment will continue to gain early market traction. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 pushes the boundaries of today's wireless connectivity, and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED helps ensure advanced features are deployed in a consistent way to deliver high-quality user experiences.

MaxLinear, Inc., a global leader in broadband access and gateway solutions, today announced its Wi-Fi 7 chipsets and Tri-band Access Point were certified by Wi-Fi Alliance and selected as one of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 test bed devices. Wi-Fi Alliance's Wi-Fi 7 certification helps verify that upcoming Wi-Fi 7 devices can seamlessly interoperate and deliver the high-performance promises of the new standard. The inclusion of MaxLinear's innovative, single-chip Wi-Fi 7 solution in the verification process exemplifies its continuing commitment to pushing the boundaries of in-home communications and reshaping the way service providers build access and connectivity networks.

"At MaxLinear, we're not just leading the pack with Wi-Fi 7 technology; we're redefining it. Our single-chip tri-band device is an industry first, symbolizing a giant leap in wireless communication," said Will Torgerson, VP/GM Broadband Group. "With our focus on power efficiency and peak performance, we're at the forefront of the Wi-Fi 7 revolution, offering blazing-fast speeds, reduced latency, and robust connectivity. As part of the Wi-Fi Alliance, we celebrate 25 years of Wi-Fi innovation and remain committed to advancing a connected world where our groundbreaking solutions enable seamless, multi-gigabit broadband access."

Broadcom Inc. today announced sample availability of its second generation of wireless connectivity chipset solutions for the Wi-Fi 7 ecosystem, spanning Wi-Fi routers, residential gateways, enterprise access points, and client devices. The new chips build on the ecosystem of products with Broadcom's first-generation Wi-Fi 7 chips while delivering additional functionality to a wider market.

The first chip, the BCM6765, is a highly-optimized residential access point chip that supports 320 MHz 2-stream Wi-Fi operation. This new platform system-on-chip (SoC) allows the productization of Wi-Fi 7 mass-market access points and smart repeater solutions which span the spectrum of cost, form factor, and performance. The second chip, the BCM47722, is an enterprise access point chip that also supports 320 MHz 2-stream operation along with dual IoT radios that support simultaneous operation for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, Thread, and Matter protocols. This SoC addresses the growing needs of Internet of things (IoT) applications in the enterprise Wi-Fi market. The third chip, the BCM4390, is a low-power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 802.15.4 combo chip designed for use in mobile devices such as handsets and tablets. It supports 160 MHz 2-stream Wi-Fi operation, dual Bluetooth, and Zigbee, Thread, and Matter protocols to service a broad set of mobile markets.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the trade association that oversees Bluetooth technology, today announced a new specification development project to define the operation of Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) in additional unlicensed mid-band spectrum, including the 6 GHz frequency band. With over 5 billion products shipping each year, Bluetooth technology is the most widely deployed wireless standard in the world. A core reason for its unmatched adoption and success is the continual evolution of the technology in key areas, including higher data throughput, lower latency, and greater positioning accuracy. The new spectrum expansion project will help ensure that these Bluetooth performance enhancements can continue well into the future.

"Over the last twenty years, Bluetooth technology has made our lives more productive, safer, healthier, and joyful," said Mark Powell, CEO of the Bluetooth SIG. "The Bluetooth SIG community is constantly evolving the technology to meet ever expanding market demands for wireless communications. Expanding into the 6 GHz spectrum band will ensure the community can continue to make the enhancements necessary to pave the way for the next twenty years of Bluetooth innovation."

Today, Intel Corporation and Broadcom Inc. showcased the industry's first cross-vendor Wi-Fi 7 demonstration, with over-the-air speeds greater than 5 gigabits per second. The trial used an Intel Core processor-based laptop with a Wi-Fi 7 solution connected to a Broadcom Wi-Fi 7 access point.

"We are proud to highlight how next-generation Wi-Fi 7 can make new mobile PC experiences possible. Industry collaboration is essential to ensure we deliver on the promises of this new wireless technology. We would like to thank our colleagues at Broadcom for their great technical cooperation, which helped enable this unprecedented, first-of-its-kind demonstration of ultra-high speed and ultra-low latency Wi-Fi 7," said Carlos Cordeiro, Intel Fellow and Wireless CTO, Client Computing Group, Intel.

Vijay Nagarajan, vice president, Wireless Connectivity Division, Broadcom, said, "Today's milestone sends a clear message: the ecosystem is ready and Wi-Fi 7 is here to deliver extraordinary capacity and blazing fast speeds to extend gigabit broadband. The reliable, low latency communication provided by Wi-Fi 7 is a key element of Broadcom's vision for connecting everything as the Internet evolves to its next iteration replete with immersive experiences. Industry collaboration is key to making this unprecedented connectivity a reality and we were delighted to work with Intel to achieve another industry first."

With adoption of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 growing steadily, Wi-Fi Alliance is evolving Wi-Fi 6 certification to meet increasing demands from today's Wi-Fi use cases. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 is now available, bringing new features that support increasing device and traffic density to deliver greater performance and power management with Wi-Fi devices and applications. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 adds support for uplink multi-user multiple input, multiple output (multi-user MIMO) to deliver smoother streaming services and video conferencing, faster uploads, and more reliable gaming. Additionally, three power management features improve Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 power efficiency, benefitting enterprise, industrial, and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. New features apply across all bands supported by Wi-Fi 6 - 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6 GHz - bringing capacity, efficiency, coverage and performance benefits to residential, enterprise, and large public networks. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers the best experience with advanced applications, while providing strong WPA3 security and promoting interoperability between Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices.

"Wi-Fi delivers advanced capabilities that have driven tremendous global innovation, paving the way for massive growth in Wi-Fi applications that users rely on every day," said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance. "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 Release 2 furthers Wi-Fi's evolution to address today's market needs, and supports more high-performance Wi-Fi scenarios with greater capacity, efficiency, and reliability."

MediaTek today unveiled its new Filogic connectivity family with the introduction of the Filogic 830 Wi-Fi 6/6E system-on-chip (SoC) and Filogic 630 Wi-Fi 6E network interface card (NIC) solutions. MediaTek's new Filogic series of high-performance Wi-Fi 6/6E chipsets provide reliable connectivity, high computation capabilities and a rich set of features in highly integrated, power-efficient designs.

"The MediaTek Filogic series ushers in a new era of smart Wi-Fi solutions with extreme speeds, low latency and superb power efficiency for seamless, always connected experiences," said Alan Hsu, Corporate Vice President & General Manager, Intelligent Connectivity at MediaTek. "These new chipsets provide best-in-class features with highly integrated designs for the next generation of premium broadband, enterprise and retail Wi-Fi solutions."

Linksys, a global leader in home and business Wi-Fi solutions, today announces the availability of the market's first Wi-Fi 6E certified systems, the Linksys Hydra Pro 6E and award-winning Linksys Atlas Max 6E. Built with Velop Intelligent Mesh and utilizing the newly opened 6GHz band, the Linksys Hydra Pro and Linksys Atlas Max expand the user's network for the fastest speeds possible to every corner of the home. Wi-Fi 6E offers the 6GHz band connection that is needed for device-heavy homes and ensures optimal performance for video conferencing, working and learning from home, as well as the latest AR and VR devices.

"Wi-Fi 6E is driving a surge in technology innovation and we're proud to deliver next-level solutions that harness 6E speeds and efficiency, coupled with built-in Velop Intelligent Mesh," says Harry Dewhirst, vice president of business development, Linksys. "As the market's first Wi-Fi 6E system certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance we remain steadfast in our commitment to provide our customers reliable, innovative and secure Wi-Fi solutions."

Qualcomm Technologies Inc, launches a flagship portfolio of mobile connectivity systems that represent the most advanced Wi-Fi 6E offerings of their kind. Building upon our leading Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth audio technology features, the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 and Qualcomm FastConnect 6700 mobile connectivity systems feature the fastest available Wi-Fi speeds in the industry (up to 3.6 Gbps) on a mobile Wi-Fi offering, VR-class low latency and Bluetooth advancements delivering immersive audio experiences for classic and emerging LE Audio use cases.

"With the introduction of the FastConnect 6900 and 6700 solutions, Qualcomm Technologies is redefining the mobile experience by extending the power of Wi-Fi 6 into the 6 GHz band and advancing wireless audio with cutting-edge integrated Bluetooth 5.2 features," said Dino Bekis, vice president and general manager, mobile and compute connectivity, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "These innovations enable us to further break away from the pack and deliver a connectivity portfolio optimized to accelerate global adoption across multiple smartphone tiers."

The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance is now available and delivers the best user experience with devices based on IEEE 802.11ax. The certification program brings new features and capabilities that enable substantially greater overall Wi-Fi network performance in challenging environments with many connected devices such as stadiums, airports, and industrial parks. With adoption of the latest Wi-Fi generation increasing, product vendors and service providers can trust Wi-Fi CERTIFIED will distinguish Wi-Fi 6 products and networks that meet the highest standards for security and interoperability. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 provides significant capacity, performance, and latency improvements to the entire Wi-Fi ecosystem, while ensuring products across vendors to work well together to deliver greater innovation and opportunity.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 supports a more diverse set of devices and applications, from those requiring peak performance in demanding enterprise environments to those requiring low power and low latency in smart homes or industrial IoT scenarios. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers nearly four times the capacity of Wi-Fi 5, and is an evolutionary advancement for Wi-Fi's ability to deliver high-performance infrastructure and optimized connectivity to all devices on a network simultaneously - bringing noticeable improvements in densely connected Wi-Fi environments. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers critical connectivity that supports cellular networks, and leverages high speeds, low latency, power efficiency, greater capacity, and enhanced coverage to deliver many advanced 5G services.

Many of our readers would probably have no problem identifying the type of connectivity offered by Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11ac or 802.11n, but for many other users those differences have never been too clear.

That's precisely what the Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that defines these standards, wanted to solve. In an official announcement, this body has revealed the new scheme to name Wi-Fi versions. The new names will make those versions much more easily differentiated both by manufacturers and especially by users.