You would possibly nonetheless be digging for units to hook up with your Wi-Fi 7 router, however Qualcomm is already forging forward. At Cellular World Congress this week, it confirmed off a brand new Wi-Fi 8-capable chip within the FastConnect 8800. It is designed to offer the type of excessive bandwidth and concurrent connection help of a future wherein AI makes use of the web as a lot as we do.
Right now’s mainstream routers have a tendency to supply Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E help, however Wi-Fi 7 has been accessible for years, with its extra premium efficiency and have set. However even that will not be sufficient for the agentic AI age, in line with Qualcomm, which has one thing vastly extra highly effective up its sleeve.
The FastConnect 8800 will provide double the efficiency of its predecessor, with help for Bluetooth 7.0, Extremely Wideband 802.15.4ab connectivity, and improved vary from the router itself. It leverages a redesigned 4×4 radio configuration that can massively prolong gigabit-speed vary in comparison with earlier router generations. Qualcomm additionally recommended it will help next-gen 10Gbit web connectivity, though the supply of fiber connections even approaching that’s nonetheless uncommon in early 2026.
Wi-Fi 8 will deliver quite a lot of efficiency enhancements.
Credit score: Qualcomm
As with every part in 2026, although, this new chip may even add extra AI help. It’s going to use AI brokers to “improve efficiency,” although Qualcomm did not clarify precisely how. It’s going to energy all of the AI duties utilizing the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, enabling agentic AI on the edge.
This new chip will seem in a complete class of Wi-Fi 8 routers and IoT units later in 2026, in line with 9to5Google.
Wanting past even this high-speed {hardware}, Qualcomm additionally goals to increase into next-generation cell web, with a worldwide launch of 6G web deliberate for someday in 2029. Describing the community as “AI native” (with out going into an excessive amount of element), Qualcomm is making it clear it is prepared for no matter comes subsequent.
Qualcomm says 6G requirements needs to be finalized by 2028, so at that time, we’ll at the very least know its technical capabilities.
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