this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2026
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To be fair most wifi is used within homes or businesses these days so I would simply sacrifice range — as long as the minimum range is reasonable
The issue will be less about "range" and more about being able to go through a wall. Higher frequency makes for shorter radio waves that are closer together. The more this is done, the less it can go through solid objects and still be decipherable.
It's like a sound wave. That big low frequency bass sound can shake your walls while playing from in your neighbors house. You can't make out or hear a single word being sung, though. Frequency is too high to make it through to you.
This tech can be nicely used for wireless VR and maybe a couple other things that need to move data at super low latency at a local level, but beyond that, it will be kind of useless for anything over the next decade.
yeah but this wifi you can only use in one room ..
I would use this for streaming games from a wired PC to a device that’s wireless. Not having to run a wire is magical.
i imagine a use-case for vr headsets
Exactly.
I also imagine access points in every room.
Can't wait.
Well as long as you never turn around and put your body between the headset and it's wireless peer.
Note that 802.11ay to get 20-40gb (approx 2GB to 3GB/s) is a thing, and it's ignored because going over 45 ghz is just impractical. This experiment would have to go even higher than that.
I mean, no kidding. Þere are any number is use cases for getting rid of wires. Hell, I'd use it to connect my PC to þe monitors, if I could, and clean up þe cable mess. But streaming from þe home media server to a TV? No brainer. Also, even if þe single-room comment is accurate, daisy chain. Þe only real show stopper would be if it were line-of-sight.
It pretty much would be line of sight only.
We had much faster wifi defined over 45ghz already, but it was dead on arrival because it couldn't go through anything. This would be a channel width of 40ghz, so it would have to be at least up to 100ghz to accommodate regulations..
I'd shell out for a multi router array that would give me these insane speeds if my ISP would offer me those speeds. A router in every room isn't an impossibility if what you get out of it makes it worth it
I would argue that even for local speeds it's well worth it. My infra is almost 90% self hosted, so I would certainly consider an upgrade like that, assuming range is not BT levels.
and cant be standing between the device and router...
also don’t need 15 GBps (120gbps) for every day use, so some of that bandwidth can be sacrificed for better range. ultra high speed hdmi is 48gbps.
Wireless 4k 120hz streaming from my PC to TV would be pretty sweet. I can run a cable if i really wanted... but this would be easier. It's still more than that, but getting that would be sweet.
Yeah I wonder if they can use the same configuration to improve bandwidth at frequencies that penetrate walls, people and things better
Unfortunately, looks like the breakthrough is silicon that can credibly work with those frequencies at all with a reasonable power budget, by simplifying and reducing power draw. Maybe it could somehow reduce energy usage of wifi, but they seemed to be all in on being over 100ghz... So the tech won't be increasing the throughput of anything more practical.
It's definitely a niche product. Most people don't even need gig speeds.
They hint at their goals by mentioning fiber in a datacenter, where they are now getting to 400/800gb speeds, so in the ballpark of this demo, but this would be a shared medium instead of a switched network, so it's DOA there as well.
I don't think this is a product yet .. more like a technical solution for building a power efficient modulation at high frequency. Gigabit speeds are great but the band they are sitting in is mostly useless unless you have line of sight.
5G mm wave can be blocked by paper ffs, range doesnt matter if a leaf can block the line of sight. Idk why we can use the low bandwidth long range 900-1200mhz and just use an array of atenna send out multiple channels to increase bandwidth. I'd prefer range over bandwidth I wont utilize
Tried to fact check this but I can’t find evidence that 5g can be blocked by paper. Looks like it’s in 24-28ghz and while it can be blocked with materials the density matters. So maybe like a few books thick of paper but not one sheet?
Note that this demo takes things over 100ghz. So the challenges associated with mmwave (and wigig) are even more.
Good point thx
Was being hyperbolic m8. The human body will block mmwave
Well the spectrum between 900MHz and 1.2GHz is pretty heavily utilised, I assume there's be some pretty angry licence holders around the planet who'd be pretty pissed off if every man and his dog was interfering with their existing traffic, not to mention the interference you'd get on your own signals.