The European Commission (EC) has agreed on a uniform line for the use of the frequencies in the Wi-Fi 6E spectrum. The official harmonization brings more channels for WLAN. The extension ensures network relaxation, but not in Europe to the same extent as is possible in other countries and regions.
New WLAN standard harmonized in Europe
With the final decision from mid-June and the frequency band expansion in Sub-6 GHz WLAN, which has now been officially published in the Official Journal, the EU Commission (EC) paved the way for the introduction of products of the new Wi radio standard more than 15 years after the last spectrum expansion -Fi 6E (Enhanced). More frequency bands than before are available for modern WLAN. With the successful decision, the extended use of the 6 GHz band for wireless networks in the range between 5,945 – 6,425 MHz can be harmonized throughout the EU. According to the Commission, this will support “a growing number of devices, online applications and innovative services” that require higher speeds. This means that private households and companies can have more stable Wi-Fi connections in the future, for example for video conferences, streaming and telemedicine. In addition, WiFi-6E-WLAN should catch up with the 5G cellular standard in terms of latency rates.
Wi-Fi 6E in Europe with a reduced frequency block
Overall, the EU enables 480 MHz additional spectrum in the 6 GHz band in order to take into account the steadily growing number of WLAN devices. According to the Commission, this almost doubles the frequency range available for WLAN: So far, almost 540 MHz have been released in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. According to the institution, the expanded spectrum will reduce network congestion in schools, lecture halls or football stadiums, for example, and thus increase actual speed. But this is only half the story, because the “European variant” of Wi-Fi 6E is a truncated form that only partially exhausts the actual potential of the WLAN standard.
Numerous countries, including the USA, where the regulatory authority FCC preceded it in April 2020 and released an additional frequency block between 5.9 and 7.1 GHz, South Korea and many countries in Central and South America, have approved a larger frequency block up to 7,125 MHz and thus the entire bandwidth of 1,200 MHz (5,945 – 7,125 MHz) has been released. Australia, the UK, Japan and Canada will follow shortly. The incomplete opening of the 6 GHz band for WLAN in the EU is primarily criticized by the economy. This hopes that the remaining frequencies will also be released for license-free use by WLAN in the EU at a later date.
Wi-Fi 6E (Enhanced) for more bandwidth reserves
The standard Wi-Fi 6E is a fully downward compatible extension of Wi-Fi 6 above the 5 GHz radio band. The additional radio channels allow WLAN systems to avoid each other better in densely populated areas, which ensures fewer overlaps and ultimately greater bandwidth reserves. Routers and remote stations, such as PCs or smartphones, require new WLAN units for the new wireless standard Wi-Fi 6E, such as those offered by Intel with the M.2 AX210 plug-in card for some time. But Qualcomm also announced the first Wi-Fi 6E chips for smartphones, routers, access points and repeaters, for example, in the middle of last year. Some devices, especially notebooks, but also some of the first mainboards in the upper price range and of the newer generation are already equipped with the modern Wi-Fi 6E modules, but some require firmware updates to activate the area approved in Europe.
It will be some time before the new frequency block is actually activated and Wi-Fi 6E-capable devices come onto the market in large numbers in the EU. This is because the European standard EN 303 687 associated with approval, which manufacturers can use to issue declarations of conformity themselves, still had draft status at the end of June 2021 (Draft 0.0.12). The member states now have to implement the EC requirement by December 1, 2021 and thus provide the spectrum for the introduction of Wi-Fi 6E.
Allocation should take place shortly in Germany
In Germany, the final spectrum expansion of Wi-Fi 6E will take place through a general allocation by the Federal Network Agency. As early as late autumn 2020, the regulatory authority announced that the 6 GHz frequency range could probably be made available in this country in the second quarter of 2021. The network agency recently stuck to this date when asked and further revealed that the allocation for the WLAN expansion to 5,945 MHz to 6,425 MHz “should take place shortly”. However, there is currently no specific date for this. It is heard from manufacturers that the first enterprise solutions for large projects will be delivered in autumn.