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Wifi 6e - access points?

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RMerlin

Asuswrt-Merlin dev
Personally I have serious doubts Wifi 6e is ever going to gain any significant market share due to the fact that it requires a dedicated 6 GHz radio, which means only expensive tri-band routers will offer it.

I wonder if a manufacturer might consider releasing an Access Point that only supports 6 GHz, which means anyone would be able to add 6e capabilities to their existing network without spending 500$ on a new router. Such a single-band AP would be fairly inexpensive. Thoughts?
 
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That won't happen. 6E requires that signaling occur out of band on 2.4 or 5 GHz. So those radios are needed for management duties.

I think your prediction is likely wrong. Chip makers are producing tri-band chipsets out of the gate, so incremental cost is not so great.
 
You might have expected somebody like DLINK to announce lower tier WIFI 6E hardware this week as CES but they only announced new WiFi 6 equipment. So far only Netgear and TPLINK announced 6E hardware this week, all top tier tri-band stuff. The closest to mid-tier so far is the TPLINK AX93, which is essentially the 6E version of their tri-band Wifi-6 AX90 router. The AX90 hasn't even made it to NA yet, but I'd estimate it to be in the $350US range. Maybe making the 6E AX93 a $400 router at best maybe? I'm speculating that it might be a awhile into 2021 that the cheaper stuff pops up, unless ASUS surprises us with an announcement on Wednesday (their CES scheduled date).
 
Single-use (focused) AP's are a bad idea now. 6GHz models will be worse (because they'll cost more, of course).

Nobody I have recommended to buy a router instead of an AP/Repeater has bought that AP/Repeater when I explained the benefits of having two routers are.

Everyone I know that has previously asked me for a 'GT' model with three 'radios' and didn't buy one when I explained it was still and 'only' a limited/constricted two-band device, will be jumping to get into full-fledged three radio and three-band routers, whenever I can recommend one to them.

I don't need to repeat, here do I? I can only recommend RMerlin powered Asus routers for the best networking experience in consumer land. :)

With 2.5GbE switches and higher, finally becoming available, the infrastructure for a full Tri-Radio/Tri-Band router is slowly getting in place to make the most of the current, future, tech.

Whether we like it or not, we've come to expect the exorbitant prices a top-end router now commands. We may as well have one with all the trimmings while we're at it then.
 
It's unlikely you'll see cheaper 6E stuff this year. Manfs gotta make money for a little while. That said, looks like the first 6E routers are priced similar to the first 6es.

ASUS GT-AXE11000 is $550 and looks like Amazon removed the estimated ship date.

NETGEAR says the RAXe500 ships this quarter @ $600.

God knows when TP-Link will actually ship anything 6E and what it will cost.
 
Whether we like it or not, we've come to expect the exorbitant prices a top-end router now commands.

Top end user yes. The average joe knows nothing about routers and really don't care. They are also the ones that bitch at anything that costs over 100.00. They simply don't care as long as there web page and emails load.
 
That won't happen. 6E requires that signaling occur out of band on 2.4 or 5 GHz. So those radios are needed for management duties.

I think your prediction is likely wrong. Chip makers are producing tri-band chipsets out of the gate, so incremental cost is not so great.

How can any standard gain traction if the cheapest router that supports it is over 500$, which means a very limited market share?
 
You might have expected somebody like DLINK to announce lower tier WIFI 6E hardware this week as CES but they only announced new WiFi 6 equipment. So far only Netgear and TPLINK announced 6E hardware this week, all top tier tri-band stuff. The closest to mid-tier so far is the TPLINK AX93, which is essentially the 6E version of their tri-band Wifi-6 AX90 router. The AX90 hasn't even made it to NA yet, but I'd estimate it to be in the $350US range. Maybe making the 6E AX93 a $400 router at best maybe? I'm speculating that it might be a awhile into 2021 that the cheaper stuff pops up, unless ASUS surprises us with an announcement on Wednesday (their CES scheduled date).

Probably a Blue Cave AXE revision.
 
The parts, though they may be priced dearly to start due to scarcity, shouldn't be any more expensive than a current tri-band model. Three radios, and some number of FEMs and filters based on the extent of the MIMO inside. Same idea in the end. The attached pic shows the tri-band Eero Pro 6 with its 3 radios, 8 Skyworks FEMs and 8 SAW and BAW filters. I think we will see more parts incorporated into modules and much smaller devices as a result.
 

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It's unlikely you'll see cheaper 6E stuff this year. Manfs gotta make money for a little while. That said, looks like the first 6E routers are priced similar to the first 6es.

ASUS GT-AXE11000 is $550 and looks like Amazon removed the estimated ship date.

NETGEAR says the RAXe500 ships this quarter @ $600.

God knows when TP-Link will actually ship anything 6E and what it will cost.
It's because ASUS pre order Qty are all sold out, so Amazon hides the page, ASUS will supply the stock to Amazon asap, they will open pre order page soon in these days, which will be sold by Amazon directly.
 
Wi-Fi Alliance requires all technologies to be backward compatible. so I think there will never be a single band device.
 
If 6ghz got successful I was wondering if it could eventually knock 5ghz in the unused zone. 2ghz would be for legacy, simple stuff like printers, cheap IOT & 6ghz would be the performance band. A budget router 10 years in the future would be dual band 2 & 6 ghz.
 
I see it more likely to eventually see 2.4 GHz get sunsetted than the 5 GHz band. 2.4 GHz is filled with problems due to how congested that radio band is. That`s not going to happen for many years tho, still way too much stuff is 2.4 GHz-only, like a lot of IoT gadgets. Here, I still have a Roomba and a LED strip that are 2.4 GHz-only.
 

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