Samsung has announced a breakthrough in Wi-Fi technology that could allow for speeds up to five times faster than today's current fastest speed.
The new technology will allow for speeds of up to 4.6 gigabits per second, meaning that a 1-GB movie could be downloaded in only three seconds.
"Samsung has successfully overcome the barriers to the commercialization of 60 GHz millimeter-wave band Wi-Fi technology, and looks forward to commercializing this breakthrough technology," said Kim Chang Yong, head of a research-and-development center of Samsung.
"New and innovative changes await Samsung's next-generation devices, while new possibilities have been opened up for the future development of Wi-Fi technology," he continued.
The 60-GHz spectrum is currently unlicensed around the globe, but commercialization of it is expected as early as next year. That does not mean, however, that consumers should expect to be getting download speeds of 4 gigabits per second in their homes, but it does mean that perhaps one day it will be possible.
Samsung will likely want to start developing products that can take advantage of this technology as soon as possible and it's likely that the first products to support it will be "audiovisual devices, medical devices and telecommunications equipment," according to a report.
Making the Wi-Fi standard work at 60 GHz is not exactly a new idea, but these frequencies have been shunned until now because of problems that can arise in going through walls and other similar scenarios. Samsung, however, says that it has overcome these problems with new transmitter and antennae designs.
"Unlike the existing 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi technologies, Samsung's 802.11ad standard 60-GHz Wi-Fi technology maintains maximum speed by eliminating co-channel interference, regardless of the number of devices using the same network," said Samsung in its announcement.
The news comes as Samsung increasingly has to battle companies such as Apple. The company announced a 60 percent decrease in quarterly operating profit last week because of stagnating smartphone sales. The company also announced a $14.5 billion investment toward building a semiconductor plant in South Korea in an attempt to keep up with demand for its chips.
The increase in Internet speeds should also bolster a new wave of Internet-based technology. An increasing number of households are using Internet of Things devices as well as computers, tablets and wearable devices.
"With more and more of us using a wide variety of different devices to access our photos, video, and personal data, the ability to quickly transfer that data between devices is going to become even more important in the future," said Stuart Miles, founder of Pocket-lint, a tech news site.
