5 Ways 802.11ac Improves the iPhone

The Apple Watch may have stolen the show on Tuesday, but the news that is sure to benefit more users, is that the iPhone finally got its Wi-Fi networking specs bumped up to the latest wireless networking standard, 802.11ac.

But what exactly does that mean, and how will it improve your iPhone 6 experience? 802.11ac is the next-generation wireless standard that replaces 802.11n. The newest standard operates on the 5GHz band, which in turn, operates on channels that are less utilized than the 2.4GHz band—the band that many, many wireless devices use.

This means that the 5GHz band is less crowded, so it provides a more robust wireless signal. 802.11ac also makes throughput at 5GHz faster because it can support wireless speeds over 1Gbps, and we are starting to see on the market 802.11ac routers that support aggregated throughput rates of over 2Gbps. For iPhone users, 802.11ac means improvements in the following ways:

1. Faster Wireless
Phil Schiller, during Tuesday's event, mentioned that the iPhone 6 can now support speeds up to 433Mbps. While there are 802.11ac devices that now have even faster chipsets, the iPhone is no longer the slowest bottleneck in a home that has an 802.11ac router.

Before, the iPhone could only manage under the most ideal wireless environmental conditions, up to 300Mbps Wi-Fi data rates. No matter how fast your wireless router, your throughput is reduced if you are using a device that is considerably slower than the router. Apple iPhone users with 802.11ac routers, and even those with the latest premium 802.11n routers capable of data rates of 1900Mbps, for example, should notice vastly improved performance with tasks such as streaming and sharing data between devices in a home network.

If you have an older router and are planning to buy a newer 802.11ac router to leverage the faster throughput of the iPhone 6, there is some likelihood that you may see a bit of a bump in your Internet bandwidth. Now it's important to remember, your Internet bandwidth is a set speed, capped by whatever level of service you receive from your ISP. A new router will not significantly increase that speed. However, because of the constant fine-tuning of router hardware by vendors, as well as the inclusion of features such as Traffic Shaping and Adaptive QoS, a newer router along with the 802.11ac specs in the iPhone may give some users a higher quality and faster Internet connection.

2. Better Coverage
Apple iPhone 6 users may also see better wireless range, receiving Wi-Fi in places that may have been "dead zones" with legacy iPhones. By design, a wireless signal does not travel as far on the 5GHz band (which is the wireless frequency on which 802.11ac operates) than on the 2.4GHz band. Yet, in our wireless gadget saturated society, the 2.4GHz band is over-utilized. Devices are constantly competing with one another on this frequency, invariably slowing down the robustness of the 2.4GHz band and introducing coverage issues. Because 802.11ac operates on less-used wireless channels, iPhone 6 users may receive better overall wireless coverage.

3. Benefits from Smart QoS
Newer 802.11ac routers not only provide speed, but they are increasingly coming out with improvements in the way data traffic is handled on a network. One excellent feature in many of the new 802.11ac routers we've tested is intelligent Quality of Service (QoS). Some vendors refer to this feature as "Adaptive," "Smart," or "Advanced" QoS. Routers with this capability can differentiate and pinpoint the types of data traffic coursing through your home network such as gaming, file copying, video, etc. You can give priority to the type of traffic that is most important to you.

In one router we tested, Netgear's Nighthawk AC1900 Smart WiFi Router (R7000), turning on Intelligent QoS reduced the time to buffer a Netflix video from 21 to 4 seconds. However, the advantages of smart QoS becomes more apparent as you have more devices on a network performing more throughput-intensive tasks. Now that the iPhone 6 has 802.11ac, users can set an iPhone to the 5GHz band and make it part of a QoS strategy to improve performance on a network.

4. Leverages the Speeds of the Latest Apple Airport Extreme
802.11ac is not a new technology for Apple. The Haswell MacBook Pros introduced in 2013 have 802.11ac as does the latest Airport Extreme router. Unless you own the newer MacBook Pros or other third-party 802.11ac wireless clients, if you have the newest Airport, you can't leverage the speed Apple's router provides. Now you can with the new iPhone 6.

Apple's AirPort Extreme Base Station (model A1521)(pictured) is, without question, Cupertino's most powerful Wi-Fi router to date. Inside the router is a triple-stream, six antenna array. The antennas make use of beamforming technology, which helps direct a wireless signal to a wireless client. The router uses Broadcom's latest 802.11ac SoC chipset. Because it's dual-band, you can place your new iPhone 6 on the 5GHz frequency for more bandwidth-intensive tasks such as video streaming. The rule of networking is that your network is only as fast as your slowest link. If you have the new Airport, a iPhone no longer has to be a slow link.

5. VoLTE
Voice-over-LTE is a new feature in the iPhone 6 that allows you to make calls over a Wi-Fi connection. This is great if you are in an area where your cellular wireless coverage is spotty. Conversely, you can seamlessly transition the call to LTE, if you enter a Wi-Fi dead zone. 802.11ac is absolutely a big advantage with this feature. You can connect your iPhone to the 5GHz band, and its broad channels can handle voice traffic better than at 2.4GHz. The ability to switch voice calling between Wi-Fi and LTE means improved call quality and possible reduction in cellular plan data charges. 802.11ac is a great technology to enhance this feature.

Not sure which 802.11ac router is right for you? Check out PCMag's roundup of the 10 Best Wireless Routers for our top picks of 802.11ac routers.