While hardwired connections always trump wireless ones when it comes to longstanding reliability and sustained transfer rates, it's obvious that a wireless world is the one we're headed for. Samsung just so happens to recognize that, which is why it's trotting out a new development in the Wi-Fi space that could send files, photos, and whatever else from point to point at record speeds. The company has just announced a new 60GHz Wi-Fi technology, which represents a five-fold increase  from 866Mbps, or 108MB per second, the maximum speed possible with existing consumer electronics devices.


With Samsung's approach, you could (in theory) see transmission speeds of up to 4.6Gbps, or 575MB per second. As a result, a 1GB movie will take less than three seconds to transfer between devices, while uncompressed high-definition videos can easily be streamed from mobile devices to TVs in real-time without any delay. Here's a bit of background on how this came to be, and why it's so vital as we move towards a world without cords:

“Samsung has successfully overcome the barriers to the commercialization of 60GHz millimeter-wave band Wi-Fi technology, and looks forward to commercializing this breakthrough technology,” said Kim Chang Yong, Head of DMC R&D Center of Samsung Electronics. “New and innovative changes await Samsung’s next-generation devices, while new possibilities have been opened up for the future development of Wi-Fi technology.”

Unlike the existing 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi technologies, Samsung’s 802.11ad standard 60GHz Wi-Fi technology maintains maximum speed by eliminating co-channel interference, regardless of the number of devices using the same network. By doing so, Samsung’s new technology removes the gap between theoretical and actual speeds, and exhibits actual speed that is more than 10 times faster than that of 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi technologies.

Until now, there have been significant challenges in commercially adopting 60GHz Wi-Fi technology , as millimeter waves that travel by line-of-sight has weak penetration properties and is susceptible to path loss, resulting in poor signal and data performance. By leveraging millimeter-wave circuit design and high performance modem technologies and by developing wide-coverage beam-forming antenna, Samsung was able to successfully achieve the highest quality, commercially viable 60GHz Wi-Fi technology.

As is the case with the 2.4GHz and 5GHz spectrum, the 60GHz is an unlicensed band spectrum across the world, and commercialization is expected as early as next year. Samsung plans to apply this new technology to a wide range of products, including audio visual and medical devices, as well as telecommunications equipment. The technology will also be integral to developments relevant to the Samsung Smart Home and other initiatives related to the Internet of Things. Something tells us we'll hear more about its plans at CES, and we wouldn't be surprised if its recent purchase of SmartThings plays a major role in what happens next.