After Bouygues and Orange, Free adopts Wi-Fi 6E. But only in its high-end box, the Freebox Delta. New subscribers benefit immediately, but old ones have to pay for this development.
Wi-Fi 6E is gradually gaining ground in France. Thus, after Bouygues Telecom and Orange, it’s Free’s turn to adopt this new fast wireless communication standard. But beware, the operator only includes it in its high-end box, the famous Freebox Delta, offered at 50 euros per month – 49.99 euros to be exact… – and 40 euros the first year. And by reserving it for new subscribers to this package, who will now benefit from it immediately. The old ones, who already have a Freebox Delta, can however also benefit from it, but by requesting an exchange of box to obtain the new compatible model – Wi-Fi 6E requiring a hardware module with a specific component, and not a simple update firmware. A “migration” operation that the operator charges 49 euros, and without offering any “commercial gesture”.
Remember that Wi-Fi 6E – from its technical name, 802.11ax – corresponds to the latest wireless communication standard for local area networks – no, it is not a direct Internet connection mode, just a means of connecting to a box or a router. It uses the 2.4 and 5 GHz frequency bands, already used on previous generations – which allows it to be compatible with all current devices, Wi-Fi 4 or Wi-Fi 5 –, but also the so-called 6 GHz band. A feature that allows it to reach higher speeds and cover a larger area, while avoiding network congestion, when many devices are connected. To put it more simply, Wi-Fi 6E offers better performance than its predecessors. Free claims that the Freebox Delta can reach speeds of up to 2.5 Gbit / s on two devices connected simultaneously on a fiber link, which is three times more than Wi-Fi 5.
Still, to take advantage of it, you must use compatible devices. And they are still quite rare on the market. Admittedly, more and more laptops are now equipped with a WI-Fi 6 (802.11ax) module, especially in the recent ranges of Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo, but this does not not all models. And, in the mobile world, this standard is still reserved for high-end – and therefore expensive – smartphones, such as the Samsung S21 Ultra and S22, the Galaxy Z Fold 3, the Xiaomi Mi 11, Xiaomi 12, or the Asus ROG Phone. 5 and Zenfone 8. Clearly, even if Wi-Fi 6E represents the future in terms of local connection quality, there is no rush to adopt it today, unless you are already equipped with compatible hardware.