HOW IT WORKS
Wi-Fi 7
More than a ‘speed bump’, the new Wi-Fi 7 looks forward to the future of the internet
YOU WILL LEARN
How Wi-Fi 7 works, and how it differs from previous versions of Wi-Fi
You can buy a Wi-Fi 7 router right now, but they probably won’t be widely available until later this year
Jargon buster
The term ‘Wi-Fi’ is really just a marketing label, but all versions of
Wi-Fi are based on an international technology standard known as 802.11, which is continually under development. Wi-Fi 5 was based on 802.11ac, while Wi-Fi 6 and 6E use the newer 802.11ax. However, Wi-Fi 7 is such a big step forward that the 802.11 tech adopts a new ‘b’ suffix, with the full title of 802.11be.
There’s an old song called Stop The World, IWant To Get Off, and T sometimes you know just how that feels. Like many people, you may still be using home broadband with an old router provided by your ISP that runs Wi-Fi 5 – originally known as IEEE 802.11ac until the tech industry marketing people decided that Wi-Fi 5 looked better on the box. Your Apple kit may be similar – the last generation of Intel Macs, many older iPads, and even iPhones made before the introduction of the iPhone 11 in 2018 also use Wi-Fi 5.