On 23 April 2020, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened the 6GHz band (5.925–7.125 GHz) to unlicensed use, including Wi-Fi. This gave Wi-Fi a wide and relatively empty block of spectrum alongside the crowded 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Wi-Fi 6E was the first standard to use it.
Wi-Fi 7 (IEEE 802.11be) can use 320MHz-wide channels in this band. The wider the channel, the more data can be carried at once, so supported devices can reach higher speeds and lower latency. The usable part of the 6GHz band varies by country. In Europe, for example, only the lower part (5.945–6.425 GHz) is open, which limits the number of 320MHz channels available.
Key Advantages of Wi-Fi 7
- ✅ Higher theoretical speed: about 46 Gbps, compared with about 9.6 Gbps for Wi-Fi 6
- ✅ Less interference in the 6GHz band (the band is not as crowded as 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
- ✅ Mandatory WPA3 security in the 6GHz band
- ✅ More efficient power usage (through features such as Target Wake Time)
NETGEAR offers Wi-Fi 7 in its Nighthawk routers and Orbi mesh systems. Multi-Link Operation (MLO), introduced with Wi-Fi 7, lets a device connect on more than one band at the same time (for example 5GHz and 6GHz), which helps keep the connection stable when one band suffers interference. MLO support depends on the model and firmware version.
