Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 5: What Changes for a Business Network

Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) is the newer standard and it beats Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) on top speed, but the real gain for a business is capacity: it copes far better when many laptops, phones and handsets share the same access point. If you run a quiet five-person office on a modest broadband line, Wi-Fi 5 may still be fine. If your wifi slows down whenever the team is in, or you are adding devices, Wi-Fi 6 is usually the sensible next step.

Below we explain what actually differs, what the independent tests show, where Wi-Fi 6E fits, and how to decide without buying kit you do not need.

TL;DR

• Wi-Fi 6 is 802.11ax and Wi-Fi 5 is 802.11ac. Ofcom lists typical maximum speeds of 600 Mbps+ for Wi-Fi 6 against 200 Mbps for Wi-Fi 5.
• The biggest benefit is handling many devices at once, thanks to OFDMA and multi-user MIMO, not a faster headline number.
• Wi-Fi 6E adds the 6 GHz band, but only devices that support it can use it.
• Wi-Fi cannot outrun your broadband line, so check the connection and the cabling before replacing access points.
• Older devices still connect to a Wi-Fi 6 network, so you can upgrade the access points first and the devices over time.

Table of Contents

• What “Wi-Fi 5” and “Wi-Fi 6” actually mean
• Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 5 at a glance
• Speed: what the headline numbers do and do not tell you
• Capacity: where Wi-Fi 6 really earns its keep
• Wi-Fi 6E and the 6 GHz band
• Battery life and other smaller gains
• Will your Wi-Fi 5 devices still work?
• Should your business upgrade? A practical checklist
• Our view: fix the whole path, not just the standard
• How we can help
• FAQ
• Sources

What “Wi-Fi 5” and “Wi-Fi 6” actually mean

The numbered names are simply consumer-friendly labels for generations of the IEEE 802.11 standard. Wi-Fi 5 is 802.11ac, and Wi-Fi 6 is 802.11ax. That is why you see “AC” and “AX” in router and access point specifications, such as AC1200 or AX3000. Ofcom’s guidance on improving your wifi uses both naming styles side by side.

Wi-Fi 5 arrived in 2014 and works primarily in the 5 GHz band. Wi-Fi 6 arrived in 2019 and works in both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, according to Cisco’s Wi-Fi 6 white paper. That second point matters more than it looks. Many older devices, such as card readers, sensors and some printers, only speak 2.4 GHz. A Wi-Fi 6 access point can serve those devices with the newer efficiency features, where a Wi-Fi 5 one treats 2.4 GHz as a legacy afterthought.

Wi-Fi 6 vs Wi-Fi 5 at a glance

The speed figures come from Ofcom’s wifi guidance, and the feature list (OFDMA, multi-user MIMO, 1024 QAM and Target Wake Time) is set out by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Speed: what the headline numbers do and do not tell you

You will find theoretical maximums quoted everywhere, with Wi-Fi 6 at 9.6 Gbps and Wi-Fi 5 at 3.5 Gbps. Nobody in an office will see those. They assume ideal conditions and top-end hardware with many antennas.

Ofcom’s typical figures are more useful: 200 Mbps for Wi-Fi 5 and 600 Mbps+ for Wi-Fi 6. Even so, the key point in the same guidance is that wifi cannot outperform the broadband service behind it. If your office has a 74 Mbps line, a Wi-Fi 6 access point will not make web pages load faster than the line allows. What it can do is stop the wifi becoming the weakest link.

Ofcom’s own router testing makes the same point from the other direction. Its technical report on wifi performance found that speeds can fall significantly with distance, that newer routers generally outperform older ones, and that wifi can become the bottleneck even when the broadband is faster. That was home equipment tested in 2019, but the physics applies equally to a first-floor office with a router in a cupboard.

A quick sense check before you spend

1. Run a speed test on a wired laptop plugged straight into the router.
2. Run the same test over wifi, standing where people actually work.
3. If the wired result is far higher, the wifi is your problem. If both are low, the line is.

If the line is the problem, no access point will fix it, and the answer is a better connection such as fibre or a leased line.

Capacity: where Wi-Fi 6 really earns its keep

Think of a wifi channel as a road. Wi-Fi 5 lets one device speak at a time on that road, so with lots of devices each waits its turn. Wi-Fi 6 uses OFDMA to divide the channel into smaller slices so several devices can transmit in the same moment, and multi-user MIMO moves more data simultaneously. Ofcom describes wifi congestion in just these terms: many devices share limited channels, so devices wait or lose throughput. In its spectrum statement the regulator says Wi-Fi 6 can connect dense populations of devices more efficiently.

What the tests show

Intel’s IT department ran a controlled test with 5, 10, 15 and 25 users on a single access point. With Wi-Fi 6 features enabled at 80 MHz, 25 users saw about 20% overall throughput degradation. Wi-Fi 5 showed about 80% degradation at 15 users and failed at 20, according to Intel’s published paper. It is one vendor’s lab, so treat the exact figures as indicative, but the direction is clear.

An academic measurement study using commodity Wi-Fi 6 equipment adds some balance. For many clients sending short transmissions, OFDMA delivered up to 3.2 times the uplink and 2.6 times the downlink throughput. The gains were less notable with few clients or heavy continuous traffic, according to the Liu and Choi paper. The same study found channel-access latency fell by about five times when Wi-Fi 6 traffic shared the air with a neighbouring Wi-Fi 5 network, though it also measured higher energy use for intensive traffic on its test devices.

What that means in practice:

• Many small tasks (email, chat, VoIP calls, cloud apps, card terminals) are exactly what OFDMA handles well.
• One person moving huge files will see less difference, because that is a single-client, intensive-traffic case.
• Shared buildings with several neighbouring networks benefit, because contention is lower.

Voice matters here. If your phones run over wifi, or your team uses softphones on laptops, jittery wifi shows up as choppy calls long before it shows up as a slow download.

Wi-Fi 6E and the 6 GHz band

Wi-Fi 6E is Wi-Fi 6 with access to the 6 GHz band as well. Plain Wi-Fi 6 uses 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz; Wi-Fi 6E also allows access to unlicensed 6 GHz frequencies, which may be less congested because few devices support them, as NHS England Digital explains.

5 GHz or 6 GHz?

Broadly, the higher the frequency, the more the signal is stopped by walls, floors and glass, so 6 GHz suits open-plan areas and meeting rooms better than a whole building from one point. The attraction is clean air: fewer neighbours and fewer legacy devices. The catch is that a device must itself support the band, and many business laptops and most older phones do not.

In the UK, Ofcom allows indoor medium-power wifi of up to 250 mW and outdoor very-low-power wifi of up to 25 mW in the lower 6 GHz band, as reported by Tech Monitor. The rules for the upper part of the band are still evolving, so check Ofcom’s own pages before planning around them.

One design point for IT managers: security requirements in 6 GHz, including WPA3, can mean separate configurations for older and newer client devices. A Fortinet planning guide advises planning your SSID strategy carefully when moving to the newer bands. In plain terms, do not just switch everything on; decide which network names serve which devices.

Is 6E worth it?

For most small businesses, a good Wi-Fi 6 design is the better first purchase. Choose 6E when you are already buying new access points, your staff are on recent devices, and you have a dense space such as a call centre, training room or co-working floor. Buying 6E-capable hardware now can also make the next refresh easier.

Battery life and other smaller gains

Target Wake Time lets a Wi-Fi 6 device sleep and wake on a schedule, which Cisco’s white paper describes as a way of extending battery life. It helps most with phones, tablets and small sensors, such as the ones in smart building systems. It does not matter for a desktop PC.

Will your Wi-Fi 5 devices still work?

Yes. Wi-Fi generations are backward compatible, so older devices can still connect to a Wi-Fi 6 access point. The condition is band support: to use 5 GHz or 6 GHz, the device itself must support that band (NHS England Digital).

That gives you a low-risk upgrade path. Replace access points first, then let laptops and phones move to Wi-Fi 6 as they come up for renewal. Older devices will not gain the new features, but they will not be left behind either. They also benefit indirectly, because the newer devices finish their transmissions faster and free up airtime.

Should your business upgrade? A practical checklist

Wi-Fi 6 is worth prioritising if several of these are true:

• The wifi is slow or drops at busy times, even though the broadband tests well on a cable.
• You have more than about 15 to 20 devices per access point, counting phones, laptops, tablets, printers and guests.
• You use video calls, cloud telephony or softphones over wifi.
• Your access points are four or five years old, or a single consumer-style router covers the whole premises.
• You are growing, moving, or refitting an office.

It can wait if you have a handful of users, light usage, one good access point in a small space and no complaints.

Check these before you buy anything

1. The line. Wifi cannot exceed your broadband. Compare your plan to what the team really needs.
2. Placement. Ofcom notes that router position, obstacles and interference all affect wifi. A well-placed older access point can beat a badly placed new one.
3. Cabling. Each access point needs a good wired connection back to the switch. Poor or old cabling will cap the benefit of newer kit.
4. Number of devices. Ofcom points out that bandwidth is shared, so fewer connected devices means better data rates for the rest. Remove what you do not need.
5. Your devices. Check which of your laptops and phones support Wi-Fi 6 or 6E before you pay extra for 6 GHz.

The cheapest way to settle these questions is a survey. Measuring signal, interference and coverage in the real building tells you how many access points you need and where they should go, rather than guessing from floor area.

Our view: fix the whole path, not just the standard

We see the same pattern again and again with businesses in Essex and London. The complaint is “the wifi is slow”, and the buyer assumes the answer is a newer standard. Sometimes it is. Just as often the cause is one access point in the wrong place, a patch lead from another decade, a plan that is too small for the headcount, or a neighbouring network on the same channel.

Because we are vendor independent, we can recommend what suits the building rather than what is on a price list. For most offices that means measuring first, then choosing Wi-Fi 6 access points sized to the number of users, and wiring them properly. We would only suggest 6E where the devices and the density justify it. We also prefer to keep contracts flexible, so your telecoms can change when your business does, and our support is UK-based so a problem gets fixed rather than passed around.

If your voice calls are the reason you care about wifi, look at the whole chain: the line, the cabling, the access points and the phone system. Weakness at any one of them shows up as a bad call.

— Paul

How we can help

We can survey your premises and design the wifi, install the cabling behind it and make sure the connection feeding it is up to the job. Our wifi survey and design service shows where coverage is weak and how many Wi-Fi 6 access points you need. Where the cabling is the weak spot, our network cabling installation team can put that right with minimal disruption. If the line itself is the limit, our business broadband starts from £24 per month for Basic, £38 per month for Standard and £49 per month for Fibre, with no long-term contract.

FAQ

What is the main difference between Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6 delivers higher data rates, greater capacity and better performance in dense environments than Wi-Fi 5. It does this with OFDMA, multi-user MIMO and 1024 QAM. Ofcom lists typical maximum speeds of 600 Mbps+ for Wi-Fi 6 and 200 Mbps for Wi-Fi 5.

Is Wi-Fi 6E different from Wi-Fi 6?

Yes, in one respect: spectrum. Wi-Fi 6 uses the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, while Wi-Fi 6E adds the 6 GHz band. Your devices must support 6 GHz to use it, so check your laptops and phones first.

Is AX better than AC?

AX (Wi-Fi 6) is the newer standard and is better in busy environments, while AC (Wi-Fi 5) is the previous generation. In a small, low-traffic office you may not notice the difference day to day. The gap widens as more devices share an access point.

Will Wi-Fi 6 make my internet faster?

Not beyond what your broadband provides. Wifi cannot outperform the connection behind it. Wi-Fi 6 can stop the wireless side from slowing you down, which matters most when the line is fast and the office is busy.

Do I need new devices for Wi-Fi 6?

No. Older devices still connect to a Wi-Fi 6 access point. They will not get the Wi-Fi 6 features, but you can upgrade the access points first and update devices as you replace them.

Sources

• Ofcom: Improving your wifi experience
• Ofcom: Improving spectrum access for Wi-Fi, statement
• Ofcom: Wi-fi performance testing of home broadband routers
• Wi-Fi Alliance: Wi-Fi MAC/PHY
• Cisco: Wi-Fi 6, Leveling Up the Technology
• IT@Intel: Wi-Fi 6, The Advantages Are Real
• Liu and Choi: A First Look at Wi-Fi 6 in Action
• NHS England Digital: Wireless technologies
• Tech Monitor: 6 GHz for All
• Fortinet: WPA3 and 6GHz design migration guide

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