Wi-Fi 6E isn’t here yet—but Broadcom is clearly banking on it

Today, Broadcom announced the availability of a new phone-targeted Wi-Fi chipset, the BCM4389. The new chipset offers support for Wi-Fi 6 and-more interestingly-Wi-Fi 6E.

For those who aren't immediately familiar with the latest bit of alphabet soup, Wi-Fi 6E isn't a new protocol at all. Instead, it's a branding name for 1200MHz of additional spectrum in the 6GHz range. The FCC hasn't yet formally approved the public use of this spectrum, but its chairman Ajit Pai expressed a desire for the agency to "move quickly" in approving it in September. Broadcom's decision to go ahead with designing and releasing actual hardware for use on the spectrum clearly strongly anticipates 6E becoming "a thing" sometime this year.

We're going to spend a little time talking about why Wi-Fi 6E is important before diving into features specific to BCM4389 itself-which go well beyond a simple "connects to 6E if available."

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