The Internet has become instrumental in both work and leisure, with many Singaporeans becoming heavily reliant on it, especially in recent years.
Due to the circuit breaker, staying at home for prolonged periods of time has become the norm for most Singaporeans.
Thus, it is worthy to invest in a reliable and stable Wi-Fi set-up.
Wi-Fi 6 allows users to enjoy maximum productivity while working from home, and uninterrupted entertainment during downtimes.
What Is Wi-Fi 6?
Wi-Fi 6 is the next generation in Wi-Fi technology. It promises faster speeds and better connectivity, and the ability to support multiple simultaneously connected devices.
Instead of boosting the speed for individual devices, Wi-Fi 6 focuses on improving the network when many devices are connected. When your router is ‘congested’, it actually slows down Internet speeds.
With Wi-Fi 6, its routers employ several new technologies that are designed to boost overall performance by offering increased throughput speeds.
Furthermore, Wi-Fi 6 employs 160MHz bandwidth — twice the current standard bandwidth — so you can connect more devices with faster speeds and wider coverage.
When compared with the Wi-Fi 5, it offers better multitasking capabilities, higher efficiency, and lower power consumption.
The standards for Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 are comparable, and Wi-Fi 5 by no means pales in comparison.
However, Wi-Fi 6 offers an edge in situations where a whole lot of gadgets are vying for the same Internet connection.
Ideal For Crowded Environments
The number of Internet of Things devices in an average household is on the rise, with people connecting devices from lights to smart TVs and laptops to the same router.
According to a 2016 report by Statista, 23 percent of Singaporean respondents made use of five or more devices that required Internet connection.
The number is likely to have risen in recent years, as the smart home industry in Singapore is growing rapidly.
Wi-Fi speeds tend to slow down in crowded areas when there are a lot of Wi-Fi enabled devices, as they all compete with each other to connect to the same router.
This means lower quality, increased buffering during streaming, higher latency during gaming, and frustratingly slow browsing speeds. In simple terms, the more devices you connect, the slower the network becomes for all devices.
The new Wi-Fi 6, incorporates many new technologies to help with this. According to Intel, it improves each user’s average speed by “at least four times” in congested areas with a lot of connected devices.
This is achieved through Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), which splits up network transmissions to send more data to more devices at once.
For example, if one person in your home is streaming a movie and another is checking social media on a phone, OFDMA allows a router to assign channels to each device based on when it needs it most.
Thus, Wi-Fi 6 allows Singaporeans in modern households where devices are aplenty to run multiple devices simultaneously at optimal speeds — all with minimal congestion or lag.
Faster Internet Speeds And Longer Battery Life
According to Singtel, Wi-Fi 6 users can enjoy up to 2.5 times faster speeds (subjected to home setups).
Wi-Fi 6 accomplishes this through more efficient data encoding, resulting in higher throughput. Mainly, more data is packed into the same radio waves.
The chips that encode and decode these signals get more powerful, allowing it to handle the extra work.
This means that you can enjoy large file downloads and uploads, 8K movies streaming, smoother gaming and more responsive smart home devices with less buffering.
For those telecommuting, frozen video calls and cut-off speech will also be a thing of the past.
Additionally, the short battery life of many devices is often a hindrance, be it for both work or leisure.
A new “target wake time” (TWT) feature means your smartphone, laptop, and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices should have longer battery life too.
When the access point is interacting with a device (like a smartphone), it can tell the device exactly when to put its Wi-Fi radio to sleep and when to wake it up to receive the next transmission.
This feature will conserve power, as it means the Wi-Fi radio doesn’t need to send refreshed network signals to all connected devices all the time, translating to a longer battery life.
Power On With Wi-Fi 6
Most people tend to upgrade their electronic devices many times over the years, but tend to keep their routers for a very long time. Here’s an advice: it’s best to get a router that is future-proof.
We are starting to see more and more devices incorporate Wi-Fi 6, and we can safely assume that new devices will support the technology.
Hence, switching to Wi-Fi 6 is the first step in building an ecosystem with noticeable improvements in connectivity and Internet speeds.
Even if some of your electronic devices are dated, you can be assured that Wi-Fi 6 routers are also compatible with all devices dating back to the early 2000s. This means that even your old laptop will be able to connect to the Internet without interruption.
Moreover, a high performance Wi-Fi router has become the single most important item in the household today, with many people working or attending classes from home.
To get your hands on a Wi-Fi 6 device, simply sign up for a Singtel Fibre plan or top up to your existing plan. Moreover, Singtel is running a promotion until 21 March 2021.
Suitable for modern homes with multiple connected devices, the Linksys E9450 AX5400 Wi-Fi 6 Mesh Router is going for S$10 a month. New and recontracting customers will enjoy four free months of 1Gbps Fibre.
Gamers will also be pleased to know that the ASUS RT-AX86U Gaming Router has a built-in Mobile Game Mode on the ASUS Router app, which can be activated to put their device at the top priority when gaming.
This router will be going for a S$15 top-up. New and recontracting customers will enjoy four free months of 1Gbps Fibre.
Lastly, the Netgear Orbi Wi-Fi 6 Mesh AX4200 (RK752) Router is suitable for larger homes and can ensure stable connectivity with coverage of up to 3,700 sq. ft, or bigger homes with five or more rooms.
Netgear will go for a S$33 per month top-up with four free months of 1Gbps Fibre. New and recontracting customers will enjoy four free months of 1Gbps Fibre.
Whether you require faster and better Wi-Fi at home for telecommuting or entertainment, upgrading to Wi-Fi 6 will be a definite boost to your productivity and enjoyment.
Find out more on Singtel’s website here.
This article was written in collaboration with Singtel.
Fearured Image Credit: Freepik
