May 16, 2012

Forget MTV. I Want My Wi-Fi.

A survey of nearly 900 Americans commissioned by Broadcom revealed that 60 percent of respondents can’t go a full day without seeking a Wi-Fi connection. In fact, about a third of them said they couldn’t last an hour without Wi-Fi.
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And here’s what else they would give up for a month, just to get that Wi-Fi fix:

>> 39 percent would give up coffee.
>> 43 percent would give up chocolate.
>> 57 percent would give up Twitter.
>> 50 percent would give up Facebook.
>> 34 percent would give up emailing.

Says Michael Hurlston, senior vice president/Mobile & Wireless Group at Broadcom, “Wi-Fi has become the connectivity equivalent to coffee, but legacy Wi-Fi wasn’t built to handle the explosion of video consumption and the growing number of wireless devices being used today. To satisfy peoples’ dependence on Wi-Fi, we need faster, broader, further-reaching and more energy-efficient Wi-Fi: 5G Wi-Fi.” 


The country’s growing dependence on Wi-Fi connectivity is caused by greater demand for content, particularly of high-definition video on mobile devices, the survey notes: “The fifth generation of Wi-Fi is now available to satisfy demand – 5G Wi-Fi, based on 802.11ac.”

According to Broadcom, its 5G Wi-Fi streams content as much as six times faster than legacy Wi-Fi and is six times more energy efficient, providing broader coverage and allowing numerous mobile devices to simultaneously connect to a network without impacting performance.