WiFi got a shot in the arm this week as much of the country becomes increasingly dependent on the technology during a global pandemic that’s forced people to shelter in their homes.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously approved regulation that will make 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band available to WiFi for unlicensed use. It’s the largest swath of spectrum allocated for WiFi since 1989, and it comes as WiFi 6, the next version of WiFi technology, begins to proliferate in routers and silicon. 

WiFi currently operates within the confines of about 400 megahertz of unlicensed spectrum in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. WiFi 6 operating in the 6 GHz band is being branded as “WiFi 6E” and devices supporting the technology are expected to start shipping before the end of the year, according to Phil Solis, research director at IDC.

“We expect WiFi 6E will gain momentum and see rapid 2021 adoption with more chipsets targeting flagship smartphones, PCs, TVs, and even VR devices,” he said in a statement.

The commission’s action has widespread support from network operators, equipment manufacturers, and service providers. WiFi’s newfound access to the 6 GHz band is a “seminal development for connectivity,” said Wi-Fi Alliance CEO Edgar Figueroa.

“This is the most monumental decision around WiFi spectrum in its history, in the 20 years we’ve been around,” said Kevin Robinson, marketing head of the Wi-Fi Alliance, in a statement. 

“I believe this is the biggest new opportunity in wireless for at least a generation,” Wi-Fi Now CEO Claus Hetting said during a virtual event. The additional spectrum will create a “paradigm shift in connectivity” and embolden a surge in innovation, he added. 

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai described the designation of spectrum residing between 5.925 and 7.125 GHz for WiFi as a “testbed for innovators and innovation” in an unlicensed environment. “We are effectively increasing the amount of spectrum that’s available for WiFi, mid-band spectrum in particular, by a factor of five,” he explained.

“WiFi today carries more than half of the internet’s overall traffic and offloading data to WiFi is critical to keeping our cellular networks from being simply overwhelmed,” Pai said. “The coronavirus pandemic has really amplified, I think, how indispensable WiFi has become in our daily lives. Our homes have turned into our offices and our classrooms, testing the limits of our WiFi networks like never before."

The new spectrum presents a “once-in-a-generation chance to meet this growing demand for WiFi capacity and even push the boundaries of what consumers think is possible with applications and services,” Pai added. 

WiFi 6, also known at 802.11ax, will provide speeds roughly 250% faster than the current standard through a myriad of technology advances in addition to the spectrum boost. Those technologies include orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO), channel utilization capability up to 160 megahertz, beamforming, and 1024 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). 

Many vendors including Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, Dell, Intel, and Qualcomm have released or previewed equipment that supports the WiFi 6 standard. 

WiFi 6 is gaining momentum in parallel with 5G for cellular connectivity and while many vendors are promoting them as complementary technologies, there is a concerted effort by mobile operators to present 5G as an alternative to WiFi, particularly for private enterprise applications. Those efforts might be largely for naught, but it poses a new opportunity for cellular-based connectivity to outshine WiFi in some contexts.

“Pretty much any enterprise that I can think of, and especially any enterprise that is considering private 5G, has a WiFi network already,” Monica Paolini, founder and analyst at Senza Fili, told SDxCentral earlier this year. 

Most WiFi-equipped enterprises will upgrade to WiFi 6 regardless of their plans for private cellular-based networks, she explained. 

As is commonplace today, licensed and unlicensed spectrum will continue to work in congruence where applicable, according to Stefan Pongratz, VP at Dell’Oro Group. “Clearly there could be some niche cases where enterprises could rely solely on one or the other, but in the vast majority of the cases we envision there is a role to play for both WiFi and cellular,” he said.