Wi-Fi to a great extent has enabled wireless internet on mobile and other devices that need to wirelessly connect to a local area network or the internet without the need for a bulky wired connection. Since its first introduction in 1997, it has seen faster adoption in many electronic gadgets and has become the defacto connection for mobile devices like laptops and smartphones among many others. Smartphones integrate Wi-Fi as the other alternative to connecting to the internet other than mobile broadband, there’s even a smartphone with Wi-Fi only as a way to connect to the internet. That’s CoolPad Arise. Connecting to the internet through Wi-Fi needs a wireless access point that is connected to the internet through fiber optic cable, DSL, or any other means to an ISP (Internet Service Provider) for internet service provision.
Wi-Fi Alliance is a nonprofit organization and is the body responsible for standardization and controlling its uses and certification of products that have Wi-Fi in them. Companies become members of the body by contributing to its development and advancing it as they use the technology on the devices that they sell.
The latest standard is Wi-Fi 6, launched in September 2019, and the first smartphones with Wi-Fi 6 were Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Rockus R750. You can learn more by visiting wifi.org. Wi-Fi Alliance over time has developed standards over time that aim to increase throughput through the reduction of latency and increasing speed and more technologies to improve Wireless internet.
Wi-Fi versions and specifications
| IEEE Standard | Year | Speed (Mbps) | Technology introduced | Operating Frequency | Status |
| 802.11 | 1997 | 1-2 |
| 2.4 GHz | Obsolete |
| 802.11a | 1999 | 54 | OFDM waveform | 5 GHz | In use |
| 802.11b | 1999 | 11 | Improvement of 802.11 | 2.4GHz | In use |
| 802.11g | 2003 | 54 | improvement of 802.11a | 2.4 GHz | Actively in use |
| 802.11n (Wi-Fi 4) | 2009 | 54-600 | Addition of MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) Antennas to prior technologies | 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz | Actively in use |
| 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) | December 2013 | 433.3-1300 |
| 5 GHz | Actively in use |
| 802.11ad | 2012 | 7000-8000 | Millimeter-wave | 30-300 GHz | Used in some applications |
| 802.11af | 2014 | 426.7-568.9 | Based on 802.11ac and used OFDMA | 54-790MHz | |
| 802.11ah | 2017 | Improves transmission range | <1GHz | Outdoor application and some large-scale sensor technologies | |
| 802.11ai | – | – | Faster initial link setup time | – | |
| 802.11aj | – | – | (Mostly used in China) | 45 GHz | In limited use |
| 802.11aq | – | – | Allows pre-association discovery of services | ||
| 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) | 2019 | Up to 10,000 | Beam Formation OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) | 5 GHz | Successor to 802.11ac |
| 802.11ay | – | 20,000 | Extension of 11ad | 60 GHz | Under development |
| 802.11be | – | – | Focus on Extremely High Throughput (EHT) | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz | Under development |
| 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6E) | April 2020 | 10, 800 | 6 GHz band opened up for Wi-Fi use Wider channels Low latency Higher capacity | 6GHz | Extension of Wi-Fi 6 In use on newer devices |
It is also worth noting that Wi-Fi is not an acronym of Wireless Fidelity as some people on the web claim.
If your Wi-Fi is slow, you can try troubleshooting to speed up your Wi-Fi network and internet connection in the process.
