this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 2 points 8 hours ago

Yep, just set your Wi-Fi routers to use 6GHD and trample all over the other people in the band until they figure out that they can't control it.

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 45 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Next they are gonna take away amateur radio frequencies so it would be illegal to communicate outside of the internet.

Then its very easy to do censorship, just turn off power to ISPs and its information blackout.

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works -4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, does anyone actually communicate on the ham bands? HF is for contesting and contesting only, 2 meters is for "checking in and out" on ragchew nets, 70cm is 2m again except half the range, 220 is hipster 2 meter, and I've never been given a reason to even think about 33cm and above. You're more likely to find discussion about Icom vs Yaesu's incompatible 2 meter digital things than high UHF.

Most actual communication is illegal on the ham bands one way or another so...I haven't renewed my license.

[–] ProfThadBach@lemmy.world 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I thought about getting a ham license so are you telling me there is really no need?

[–] gallopingsnail@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

This guy's full of shit. You can talk all you want on the HF bands, they're certainly not exclusively for contesting. You can do Morse code or digital modes too. The "most actual communication is illegal on ham bands" thing is wrong too, you can talk about pretty much anything you want as long as it's not "obscene or profane," according to the FCC.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 25 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

The cell carriers don't need more bandwith. 5G is already quite fast with the existing allocations. The only times I've used 5G and thought it's too slow has been in rural areas where the issue is a lack of nearby cell towers, not a lack of bandwidth. The cell carriers already have loads of millimeter wave bandwidth available for use in densely packed, urban areas where the lower frequency bands are insufficient.

It's WiFi that should be getting more bandwidth. Home internet connections keep getting faster. Multi gigabit speeds are now common in areas with fiber.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 10 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

This exactly. Wifi is damn near unusable in dense residential settings. It'll cut it for streaming and web browsing, but much more than that and you'll feel the pain of interference from all the other wifi APs in the area.

Especially with most of them defaulting to 80MHz on 5GHz and many of those defaulting away from UNII-2. which leaves 4 non-overlapping channels (with one of them giving trouble with a lot of devices). We're right back to where we were in 2.4. Even worse, I think, since wifi is more ubiquitous.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 63 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] sepi@piefed.social 8 points 15 hours ago

Rat Bastard Rafael Cruz

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 44 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

It's a bad band for cellular. It's short-range and shit at penetration.

It's really not even that good for wifi unless you're close or have a mesh network with APs all over the building.

[–] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 9 points 18 hours ago

Because of its shortcomings as a communication bandwidth, it's really, really good at cell-based positioning.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 10 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

mesh network

Or traditional network with Ethernet backhaul and lots of access points. I really wish mesh networks would die off honestly.

[–] curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 19 hours ago

Like anything else, they have their place. But they've been shoved into use cases they dont fit as well.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Sometimes re-wiring a house or building isn't as practical as setting up a mesh network that's good-enough.

[–] cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 17 hours ago

Mesh should be an option of last resort. It reduces the speed and increases the latency quite a bit. The only thing worse is power line networking, which has the side effect of turning your whole house into an RF jammer.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 58 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Well whoever ends up buying that band is in for a load of shit because I and a lot of other people are NOT going to stop using 6GHz WiFi

Same thing with Meshtastic. Go ahead and see just how much you'll waste your money.

[–] cogman@lemmy.world 52 points 22 hours ago

Yup, the band is already littered with 6g devices. It'd be a stupid purchase.

But also, 6GHz is somewhat of a useless band for carriers. It's high enough frequency that it'll get absorbed by most things yet low enough frequency that it'll struggle to really carry a whole lot of data.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 14 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

So if I'm reading this right... wired Internet providers are against this due to home Wi-Fi Internet speeds and phone providers are for this for mobile speeds/bandwidth?

I don't know how I feel about this as I currently have T-Mobile home Internet and it's not the best experience... but it mostly works and it's cheaper than my previous cable provider. However, home Wi-Fi really needs 6 GHz for future IoT devices.

But I am definitely against it because Ted Cruz is for it. He obviously is getting paid/bribed by the telecoms... and he sucks.

[–] HiTekRedNek@lemmy.world 16 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Eh, IoT devices typically use 2.4ghz, or even 933mhz...

Yeah IoT devices don't need bandwith, they need range (at low powers) and those lower frequencies get them that. 6ghz wifi has pretty small range and is awful for IoT stuff.

[–] MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

I kinda meant for like future products when AR and VR combine with IoT products, but if those can work on lower ranges with those 6 Ghz devices, then great... but VR and AR will definitely need 6 GHz to be more useful.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

I thought wifi was on 2.4ghz, and the new ones were on 5ghz?

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 hours ago

Nah wifi was actually originally on 5GHz spectrum, with 802.11a. It came out shortly before 802.11b, which used 2.4GHz, and was objectively better...but component shortages for 802.11a devices made the inferior 802.11b more successful on the market.

Then in 2009, after 802.11b and 802.11g came 802.11n, which used the 5GHz spectrum, and introduced dual-band routers to consumers.

Most recently, 6GHz got allocated with the advent of Wifi 6E and Wifi 7.

[–] AlternateRoute@lemmy.ca 33 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Current generation wifi 6E and 7 add 6Ghz which offers substantially more bandwidth / speed.

Wifi 7 also allows devices to use 2.4/5/6Ghz at the same time instead of just hard switching between them.

Would be a major setback since 6Ghz allows devices to easily hit Gigabit speeds wirelessly.

[–] xthexder@l.sw0.com 1 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

Yeah, I've got Wifi 7 set up and it's awesome. I've got a single access point, and I get full gigabit in my office with line of sight, and it auto switches to 5GHz or 2.4GHz when I move too far away. It's also great for apartments since it's more easily blocked by walls, there's way less interference from neighbors.

[–] TheFogan@programming.dev 10 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

802.11a is over 20 years old, fortunately this law isn't talking about shutting down existing routers. the 6 GHZ is the next frontier to expand to, the military already owns the 7 GHZ spectrum... So the 6 GHZ is the one that can be expanded into. Of which origionally was planned to be made for the next generation of wifi... but now is going to be sold off to phone providers to use in the next generation of mobile networks.

So in short, our existing routers will continue to work as designed, but future routers will not be making any leaps forward.

Basically the choice between better faster wireless LANs, is getting killed in favor of better networks for cellphone services... of which the carriers will set the price on.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

6GHz compatible devices are already being sold. If your phone is new-ish it likely supports it, and many routers already have it.

This isn’t a “next gen” problem, it’s a “current gen bleeding edge” problem.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 1 points 14 hours ago

I have been using 6ghz for about a year or so now and I found it to be quite fast. MLO can be super weird sometimes and seems to get confused, but it works. (It's probably just a driver I haven't updated.)

[–] Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com 10 points 23 hours ago

802.11a was 5ghz, 802.11b was 2.4ghz. Both developed at the same time.

802.11g was 2.4ghz and extended b since 2.4 took off faster than 5ghz in the market.

Since g, n onwards has been used across both bands.

Since 802.11ax we now have 6ghz.

[–] chaospatterns@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

WiFi is on all three bands. It's not so much what's newer vs older. Newer devices tend to support 2.4, 5, and 6 and switch between them based on quality of signal and support by the WiFi network. Higher frequencies like 5 and 6GHz are generally better because there's less interference.

Cheaper devices tend to only support 2.4GHz

[–] iflyspaceships@lemmy.world 0 points 23 hours ago

Youre right, 6ghz was the next one being added