Broadcom brings WiFi at 6GHz to smartphones with chipset

Broadcom has announced the BCM4389, a smartphone chipset with support for Wi-Fi 6e, or the extension to the 802.11ax protocol that allows 6GHz to be used for Wi-Fi, in addition to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.

The BCM4389 supports three-band Wi-Fi and a channel width of up to 160MHz. There is also support for wpa3 security and for bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. Broadcom says nothing about the consumption, only that the chipset is economical. Broadcom also does not announce when the chipset should be available, but it does say that a whole series of WiFi products with support for WiFi 6e should appear this year.

The Wi-Fi Alliance announced Wi-Fi 6th early this year. This is an extension of the 802.11ax protocol, which can therefore not only use the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency bands, but also the 6 GHz band. Governments must release this part of the spectrum.

Wi-Fi equipment can use a total of 1.2 GHz in the 6 GHz band, for example with up to seven channels with a width of 160 MHz. This should bring faster speeds, lower latency and a decrease in congestion.