The Next Generation Wi-Fi Standard Is Called 6E Because the Wi-Fi Alliance Cannot Commit to a Naming Scheme ⇥ theverge.com

Chris Duckett of ZDNet in October 2018:

In a mysterious outbreak of common sense, the Wi-Fi Alliance has dumped the traditional 802.11 naming scheme for Wi-Fi technologies and is pushing ahead with a naming scheme based on numbers.

Under the scheme, 802.11ax becomes Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 5 represents 802.11ac, and Wi-Fi 4 is 802.11n.

Jacob Kastrenakes of the Verge today:

In a few months, there’s going to be a lot more Wi-Fi to go around. The Federal Communications Commission voted today to open up a plot of spectrum in the 6GHz band for unlicensed use — the same regulatory go-ahead that lets your router broadcast over the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. That means there are now more open airwaves — a lot more — that routers can use to broadcast Wi-Fi signals. Once the new spectrum is officially opened for business later this year, that should translate to faster, more reliable connections from the next generation of devices.

[…]

Devices are expected to start supporting 6GHz Wi-Fi by the end of 2020, so its implementation isn’t far away. When it arrives, expect to see it branded under the name “Wi-Fi 6E.”

The understandable and friendly numbering scheme lasted a year and a half. Now we’re back onto mysterious combinations of numbers and letters. Glad the Wi-Fi Alliance cleared that up.