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Forum Discussion
Wifi 6E
Hi,
Just wondering if WiFi 6E as just announced by the WiFi Alliance will be a simple firmware update on our Orbi AX6000 models or that this requires a future whole new chipset? As the latter would really be bad, hundreds of euro's into new technology that I know gets old quick sometimes but this was announced shortly after the router availability started to ramp up a bit.
Just wondering :)
Just wondering if WiFi 6E as just announced by the WiFi Alliance will be a simple firmware update on our Orbi AX6000 models or that this requires a future whole new chipset? As the latter would really be bad, hundreds of euro's into new technology that I know gets old quick sometimes but this was announced shortly after the router availability started to ramp up a bit.
Just wondering :)
10 Replies
Unless the current HW supports 6Ghz, I presume it will be a HW change. AX is on 5Ghz currently and it's still in draft as well.
- 6E just got FCC approved. Too bad it wasn’t included with 6 because this is really a quick but significant change. Unfortunately this will require a hardware and chipset upgrade as I do not believe the Orbi 6 has the radios that support the higher frequencies. Seeing that this is so new I suspect Netgear will launch new hardware in the future. It would be nice though if their allowed us to trade in or side-grade our Orbi 6’s for a discount.
- My expectation will be that they will charge us another 800,- Euro but it would be nice yes, it came also a bit quick and unexpected..
- That’s exactly what I was wondering. Does Netgear offer trade ins or discounts for older models? I have the Orbi RBR50 (which is a few years old).
I havn't seen any router mfr offer those.
Unless the current HW supports 6Ghz, I presume it will be a HW change. I don't think the HW supports 6Ghz currently.
Jeffoz wrote:
Hi,
Just wondering if WiFi 6E as just announced by the WiFi Alliance will be a simple firmware update on our Orbi AX6000 models or that this requires a future whole new chipset? As the latter would really be bad, hundreds of euro's into new technology that I know gets old quick sometimes but this was announced shortly after the router availability started to ramp up a bit.
Just wondering :)Anyway, AFAIK the max theoretical speed of WiFi 6E it's the same of WiFi 6, only the radio space is larger so more wireless networks can coexist with less interference among them.
If one lives in an isolated house or has only few neighbors nearby, the 6E advantage is only hypothetical.
Moreover, consider that the use of the 6 GHz band has to be approved by the authorities and this could take some time...
And even 5Ghz AX mode is still in in it's infancy. Still not alot of AX supporting devices out and hasn't fully matured or become mainstream as well. It took AC mode a while to fully mature and get into mainstream use.
And if anything, marketing will be sure to be putting out new products when and if 6E comes around. Just like when users asked if Orbi AC was asking the same questions if that model would get a FW update. We see now how that turned out.
