Wi-Fi Alliance, the organization that certifies products using wireless fidelity technology, launched Wednesday its Wi-Fi certified ac program that paves the way for 802.11ac Wi-Fi products. Samsung puts the Galaxy Mega, Galaxy S4 Active, and another handset as the first smartphones to get the certification.
The new Wi-Fi 802.11ac certification will allow higher data rates that are three to four times faster than current devices.It will also allow users to watch multiple HD movies and have greater capacity for simultaneous connections. The new Wi-Fi technology can do all these without compromising performance and decreased latency. The 802.11ac Wi-Fi will make use of 5GHz frequency for better data rate compared to the 802.11n Wi-Fi standard.
"Consumers have an insatiable appetite for rich, connected experiences. Wi-Fi Certified ac advances the ability of Wi-Fi to satisfy that appetite by increasing capacity and improving performance, thus paving the way for new products and services that provide a great user experience," said Edgar Figueroa, CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance, in a press statement.
Wi-Fi Alliance also said a result of its recent survey revealed how 60 percent of respondents use Wi-Fi for their multimedia applications and that on average, four devices are simultaneously connected to the home Wi-Fi network at peak hours of usage.
Meanwhile, Gigaom reported that Samsung was quick to get in line for the Wi-Fi certification for the 802.11ac standard. The Samsung Galaxy Mega, the Galaxy S4, and another model labeled as SCH-P729 will be the first smartphones to be certified by Wi-Fi Alliance.
Cisco was the first one to have an access point device certified. The Wi-Fi Alliance has also pre-certified chipsets and routers from different brands such as Realtek, Qualcomm, Marvell and Broadcom.
According to ArsTechnica, the latest WI-Fi certification will have hardware that can have speeds of 1.3Gbps by using three streams of 433Mbps or faster. Chip manufacturer Quantenna has manufactured chips that can go for 1.7Gbps of data utilizing four streams.
"Progression within the Wi-Fi industry has been driven primarily by applications in the mobile and connected home space. The latest generation of the technology, Wi-Fi Certified ac, preserves interoperability, which has been the foundation for the technology's success, and will enable product manufacturers to continue to explore new avenues for wireless connectivity," said Phil Solis, an analyst who works for ABI Research.
Laptops, tablets, mobile devices, and other electronics products using the latest Wi-Fi 802.11ac certification are expected to roll out in the second half of 2013.
