60Ghz Wireless Coming Thanks to WiGig Alliance

Forget all about 802.11g and Draft N. The future, according to WiGig, is in 60Ghz wireless technology, capable of transmitting data at up to 7Gbps.

It’s been a long time coming, but the WiGig Alliance has finally announced the specifications for their new wireless streaming technology. There are a great many details including backwards compatibility and support for high and low power versions of WiGig. The real story though, is in the streaming speed.

Seven gigabits per second is more than ten times faster than wireless N. It’s a higher bitrate than that of standard DVDs, and higher than Blu-ray discs. What this means from a practical standpoint is that wireless devices are about to get a lot more useful.

Though WiGig says we won’t be seeing this standard in products anytime soon – it’s being made available to member companies at the beginning of 2010 – they hope to see it in a wide range of electronics. Dr. Ali Sadri, chairman of the WiGig Alliance puts it thusly. “We're rapidly paving the way for the introduction of the next generation of high-performance wireless products – PCs, mobile handsets, TVs and displays, Blu-ray disc players, digital cameras and many more.”

Wireless streaming at this speed would make networked video and audio almost a no brainer. Hopefully they’ll have some dates for us by the time CES rolls around.

Source: InformationWeek