“The 802.11ac standard should upgrade 802.11a to use 80MHz or even 160MHz channels that provide much more bandwidth than today,” Electronista reports. “Combined with about a 10 percent increase in efficiency for modulating the actual frequencies, the speedup should improve the theoretical transfer speeds to as much as 1Gbps, or more than three times the 300Mbps 802.11n reaches for now.”
Electronista reports, “The technology should become usable as a draft standard in late 2011 and should be completely approved by December 2012.”
Full article here.
Now that would be snappy!
Isn’t December 2012 when the world ends, according to various interpretations of the Mayan calendar? I wonder whether there’s any connection…?
What use is 1Gbps wifi when broadband internet is barely 802.11/b speed, and no where near 802.11/g? And not a day goes by that we don’t read a story about the internet provides throttling down the flow of data. High speed wifi is nice when you’re on your own network, but until the ISPs decide to provide something more than 1Mbs this new spec is pointless.
Yeah, because they adopted the draft-n specs so quickly, didn’t they?
Hell, my Macbook had “n” a good two years I bet before the standard was ratified.
@Montex
ISP’s aren’t likely to upgrade unless there is some future standard. Most providers should have some measure of fiber optic by then and any bottlenecks should be minimal. It would allow cableand phone companies to change their business models and offer true interactive high def tv.
@montex
The pipes (or their owners) always slow things down.
@montex
depends where in the world you are. Here in the UK I could get 50Mbps for around £70/month, but was watching a TV show a couple of months ago that said we are way I think it was South Korea who have about 1Gbps already for around £10/month. The problem is that here in the UK and no doubt in the US we are stumped by cabling that has been in the ground for 40-50 years and can’t handle the bandwidth.
I imagine it’s just a matter of time until HDTVs have built in wireless capable of receiving Blu-ray, 3D, or even Ultra High Definition streaming. The future is wireless, and internet speeds aren’t the only consideration.
@montex
In some parts of the world 1-2 GBps household internet access is common (eg Hong Kong), so this standard will actually “unthrottle” those wifi users who are limited by their wireless access speeds.
Hopefully, when the US catches up, the new standard will be relevant.
The lower frequency of the new standards could also increase distance and mitigate obstruction interference.
I’m no networking specialist but does this mean Apple could soon update Airport Base Stations, AP Express, & Airport Extreme Cards to these speeds via WiFi???
Would be great for Screen Sharing & File Sharing if All Airport Components were that fast. Thats unless I’m Unaware of the Current Speeds of Airport. I’m only aware of those Speeds on Gigabyte Ethernet with our Macs & Base Stations
@montex
Your LAN would be speeded up. As one whom uses a NAS for my iTunes, it would be a great boost to my LAN speeds as I have three systems here that use Wi-Fi. 😀
@Lilochris
In theory Apple could start using this early, they adopted 802.11n when it was still in draft, however that would be at least 2011 and would require new hardware, it wouldn’t be a firmware update to existing devices.
Verizon offers 50 MBPs down, so this is a standard that needs to be figured now.
And could someone please tell me which ISPs are ‘throttling’ their customers? Not just the LimeWire servers, but the ordinary, maybe rent a movie a day plus video-conference and share some personal files crowd. The only place I ever hear about this is the FUD for ‘Net Neutrality’. I never hear it from the cable systems I service.
I know it could be out there….that’s why I am asking.
I figured we’d need new Hardware for this.. I remember back then when Apple Introduced 802.11n… Early 2006 Core Duo Macs were able to update Their Firmware/Software for a small $$$fee.
All I want is that my Late 2006 iMac can last until then. Apple just replaced the screen after 3 years of use.
Lilochris
I believe that was Core2Duos.
Mine is CoreDuo and was unable to upgrade.
The question is: Who’s got wi-fi? Not me. Basically, nobody has it unless they’re hanging out in a coffee shop or an airport. What a joke!
@alansky
I have it home (Airport base statioon) and at work (came with my DSL router).
This is very interesting in the smart grid context. Smart grid data pipes are not the Internet or broadband so this might well work first in other sectors.
I have two Mac computers, two iPhones, an TV, 2 Dell craptops (for work), and a Canon printer, plus an Airport Express for iTunes in my bedroom all on my Airport Extreme network.
All work on a ‘g’2.4 GHz freq except the TV, which uses ‘n’ 5.6.
To Des Gusting: the world ends in 2012 as we know it, but far from destruction, it will take us back to grace, the merge of virtual and physical reallity is just an advance of the posibilities where man rediscover his potencial; Apple is playing a role here. See my videos 2012 in YouTube, user ‘miraclevortex’
I have Comcast broadband, and after they “upgraded” me to 6Mbs, the best I’ve ever achieved has been less than 1.3Mbs over FTP. Most of the time I only get half that. And, no, I do not use Limewire or bittorrent. My point is that in the US, the ISPs have such a strangle hold on data flow that they simply won’t allow anything close to speeds enjoyed by the rest of the world. Unless, of course, you’re willing to pay for the Ultra-Mega-Super Deluxe package of $500/month or what ever. I bet the average village in Somalia gets better internet than we do.
/color me bitter
@TT
comcast was conducting caps trials in Texas, throttling those who connected to P2P networks, but haven’t heard whether they concluded them or not.
In a capitalistic society, tiered pricing is king.
The US is sucking hind tit compared to the EU and Asia.
b/g/n/a/c
The Wi-Fi alphabet is weird.
G4Dualie
There is a difference between a cap, throttling, and blocking addresses. Not having a cap is the same as paying a flat fee for your water service and leaving the spigot on full blast 24/7.
Also, from what I recall, Comcast was supposed to cap at 250 GB a month. That’s 8 GBs a day, which seems like a lot for the current market, but will need to be raised for the coming media overhaul.
Montex, your problem is that the area you live in is not mapped suitably. There are either bad pre-amps or leaking connections or too many splits. Get with your neighbors and get it settled. Have everyone of them call everyday until they come and find the problem. If it is a leakage, threaten to call the FCC, or call the city council if it is bad maintenance. My God, you are a leftest, complaining should be in your DNA….
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Cable plants are built much like a water system and are not designed for everyone to max out the network at once, but for it to not be consistently at 90% of what you are being charged for is unforgivable.
forget the the “theoretical” speed….
what’s the REAL speed going to be?
@Des Gusting
OMG! 802.11ac will bring about the end of the world!
@TowerTone
My Comcast internet/tv bill is $200/month without any premium channels. For that price I have every right to complain about my service. Maybe a “rightest” would be happy to shell out that kind of dough and just shut up about it. Do you enjoy just making corporations rich and getting little in return?
@ alansky – Um, are you serious? Anyone who uses wireless connectivity in their homes is using Wi-Fi.
And even if ISPs can’t quite catch up to these speeds yet, it’ll be a welcome speed boost for those of us wirelessly accessing other computers or hard drives on our local network.
@ Montex
I’m paying ~$150 a month for cable with HDTV, HBO, internet and phone. It did go up to $200 after the initial cheap period expired. So I called them up and requested that they put me on a plan than was more cost effective. It worked.
Montex
Try reading that again.
If you still don’t get it, then I understand why you are so confused by world events.
hopefully the isp’s will get in the real world and update their ‘unlimted tarrifs’ to mirror the faster internet
i rcvd an email warning me i’d d/ld 80 gigs in almost a month ( easily done with itunes movies , ps3 & 360 demos etc ) on my 6mbpsec UNLIMITED BT package
now they want me to change to 20 mbps
with the SAME LIMIT !!
i forgot to mention their UNLIMITED package is actually 100 megs a month
and then £1 for every gig after
isn’t this a con ??
i have no idea why people like Des Gusting here would post comments related to pseudoscience at a Mac-related website.
if december 2012 really is the time the world ends, shouldn’t every Windows fanboy try out Mac OS X for at least a month?
julian @ http://no-spamming/
Just thought I’d throw my 2¢ out here (why not?):
MBps ≠ Mbps
One megabit is one eighth of one megabyte. I highly doubt Verizon offers 50 MBps (400 Mbps), or I’m switching right NOW.
@lilochris
Screen sharing is improved primarily by a decrease in latency, not so much an increase in speed. 270 Mbps is plenty fast for VNC usage, as long as latency is not an issue. Even 54 Mbps, 11 Mbps, or 1.5 Mbps is fast enough. Latency is the key.
I have [well-known cable company’s] 12 Mbps (1.5 MBps) speed, but late at night I can get as high as 31.2 Mbps (3.9 MBps) while downloading movies from iTunes. Yes, I know about SpeedBoost. I’m only supposed to get 15 Mbps with it.
•• Why would you need WiFi?
Some of us don’t just have a single, old desktop sitting next to our modem. Some of us have friends with iPod Touches and MacBooks.
•• Why would you need 1Gbps WiFi?
Ever tried to share/copy your iTunes library over WiFi? Ever tried to share your ripped (er, backup) DVD collection over WiFi? Ever used iTunes’ “Home Sharing” to merge iTunes movies over WiFi?
Me neither, because it’s foolish to do so when hooking up ethernet gets you- oh! 1Gbps. Soon we won’t have to use ethernet for anything besides high-end networks and gaming.
Well… not entirely true. Wired connections are going 10 Gbps and beyond. Now if only our hard drive access speeds were 10 Gbps… Mmmmm.
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somenetworkguy
Sorry, the ‘MB’ was a typo.