The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has recently announced that it is now seeking feedback in regards to the usage of the 6GHz frequency bands for Wi-Fi in Malaysia. In general, this is the first step that could lead to officially enable the support for Wi-Fi 6E in Malaysia.
In its essence, the Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is designed to deliver significantly better throughput and latency than the previous Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) standard. As for Wi-Fi 6E, it is not a new thing altogether as it still belongs to the Wi-Fi 6 standard but with the additional support for 6GHz on top of 2.4GHz and 5GHz which are the common frequency bands for dual-band routers out there.
While Wi-Fi 6E still adheres to the standard’s maximum theoretical speed of 9.6Gbps, Wi-Fi 6E devices could deliver better performance than their Wi-Fi 6 counterparts since they would have wider channels and less interference. Before Wi-Fi 6E can be supported in Malaysia, MCMC must first make the 6GHz frequency available for Wi-Fi usage.
According to the public consultation paper that accompanied MCMC’s announcement, the 6GHz frequency bands in Malaysia is currently being used by a fixed service and fixed-satellite systems:
Among other things that MCMC is looking to answer through public consultation is the usage of 6GHz frequency bands by other emerging technologies including 5G. The regulator are also seeking opinions for the operating frequency range of Wi-Fi 6E in Malaysia as well as its coexistence with existing services and methods to overcome interference between them.
Members of the public as well as industry players and experts that are interested to provide their opinion regarding this matter to MCMC, can do so until 11 October 2021. For further details, head on to the regulator’s official website right here.
