Revisiting Wireless Internet Connectivity: 5G vs Wi-Fi 6

In recent years, significant attention has been directed toward the fifth generation of wireless broadband connectivity known as '5G', currently being deployed by Mobile Network Operators. Surprisingly, there has been considerably less attention paid to 'Wi-Fi 6', the new IEEE 802.11ax standard in the family of Wireless Local Area Network technologies with features targeting private, edge-networks. This paper revisits the suitability of cellular and Wi-Fi in delivering high-speed wire-less Internet connectivity. Both technologies aspire to deliver significantly enhanced performance, enabling each to deliver much faster wireless broadband connectivity, and provide further support for the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine communications, positioning the two technologies as technical substitutes in many usage scenarios. We conclude that both are likely to play important roles in the future, and simultaneously serve as competitors and complements. We anticipate that 5G will remain the preferred technology for wide-area coverage, while Wi-Fi 6 will remain the preferred technology for indoor use, thanks to its much lower deployment costs. However, the trend towards providing seamless wireless broadband connectivity, as well as smaller-cell network architectures with increasingly flexible and spectrum-agile technologies, is blurring the traditional boundaries that differentiated earlier generations of cellular and Wi-Fi.