Americans are buying Wi-Fi 7—the latest generation of Wi-Fi—faster than any Wi-Fi generation to date—and real-world testing helps explain why. In the first phase of a new field trial, the Wireless Broadband Alliance and CableLabs evaluated Wi-Fi 7 in a typical residential environment, comparing performance across different channel sizes in the 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands.  The 6 GHz band importantly enables 160 MHz or 320 MHz wide channels that are unavailable in the 5 GHz band, which in this test used 80 MHz wide channels.

The result: While it is no surprise that Wi-Fi 7 showed significant performance improvements over Wi-Fi 6E, the biggest takeaway is how well Wi-Fi 7’s 320 MHz-wide channels performed not just when a device, like a smartphone or a laptop, was near the router but throughout a suburban house. In fact, the 320 MHz wide channels outperformed the 160 MHz wide channels no matter in which room, or which floor the Wi-Fi device was placed.

These findings underscore that Wi-Fi 7 will:

• Address the challenge of more powerful broadband connectivity into the home,
• Power the ever-growing number of Wi-Fi connected devices in our homes, and
• Support the bandwidth-intensive applications that consumers increasingly utilize—like AR/VR, online gaming, and high-quality video for remote work.

Take a look at the room-by-room results from the test, demonstrating that channel size matters.  In the chart, Wi-Fi 7’s 320 MHz wide channel is in black (on the left), consistently providing the most throughput, while Wi-Fi 7’s 160 MHz wide channel is in the middle in green.  Third runner up is Wi-Fi 6E using its maximum channel size – 160 MHz – in dark blue.

Radio engineers know that wider “lanes” can move more data faster and with lower latency, allowing households to handle more data and more connected devices simultaneously. Today households have an average of 17 devices, with some households having more than twice that number – and the forecast is for even more in the future.  Those devices support diverse applications. Streaming, gaming, video conferencing, online learning, telemedicine, home security and more all benefit from bigger channels with more capacity to support them and deliver the reliability and performance consumers expect. It’s worth noting that these applications are not frozen in time, either – they are migrating to higher bandwidth consumption to support ever-more-crisp images delivered with even lower latency.

And, the faster a data stream can get to its intended destination and get off the air, the more “clean air” there is for other devices to initiate Wi-Fi transmissions. This is incredibly important for dense networking environments (think apartment or condo buildings in dense urban neighborhoods) and is another place where Wi-Fi 7’s 320 MHz wide channels are expected to shine.

This study shows the significant benefits that consumers stand to gain from Wi-Fi, utilizing a 320-megahertz-wide channel on the 6 GHz band. But remember, there are only three 320 MHz channels, and they’re all in the critical 6 GHz band—no other band has even one. But the FCC rules stranded one more invaluable 320 MHz by ending at 7.125 GHz. That means adding just 125 MHz of Wi-Fi in the bottom of 7 GHz can complete an otherwise stranded channel and increase the 320s in the U.S. by 25%. So, unless policymakers free up more unlicensed spectrum contiguous to the current 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi will quickly become a chokepoint as consumers’ networking needs intensify.

Opening 7125-7250 MHz would provide a huge boost to Wi-Fi 7 networks. Opening 7 GHz spectrum above 7250 MHz could bring the country to five such channels. These allocations are needed to ensure Wi-Fi 7 keeps pace with the rapidly growing demands of American households and businesses.

The next generation of Wi-Fi is here. But realizing its full potential will depend on giving it the spectrum resources it needs. Now is the time for smart, future-focused spectrum policy that includes unlicensed.