The Wi-Fi Alliance this week announced that it was launching a certification program for products that use the new 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, which offers up to twice the bandwidth of 802.11n with a top speed of 1.3 gigabits per second.
While products that use the new Wi-Fi standard have been on the market since last year, they have been comparably rare. The Wi-Fi Alliance hopes that its certification will help speed adoption of "ac" devices and has already certified 19 items - including the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
"Consumers have an insatiable appetite for rich, connected experiences," said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance in a press release. "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."
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, 802.11ac will provide higher data rates, greater capacity and reduced latency. The certification body predicts that by next year, the new standard will be the most common Wi-Fi protocol in use. To help adoption rates, most new ac-enabled devices will be dual-band and capable of working over both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies.
"Progression within the Wi-Fi industry has been driven primarily by applications in the mobile and connected home space," said Phil Solis, ABI Research analyst. "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."
Wi-Fi use has been growing in the US at a fast pace - nearly doubling in the past five years alone. Issues like wireless interference and insufficient capacity are becoming big problems, particularly in large urban areas. 802.11ac aims to address these concerns. While it's unlikely an ac-enabled Wi-Fi router would consistently deliver 1.3 gigabits, it should still offer a noticeable improvement.
