Broadcom Announces First 5G Wi-Fi Combo Chips for Entry Level Market

Broadcom has introduced its first 5G Wi-Fi combination chips targeted specifically for entry level consumer devices.

With more enterprise and retail routers rapidly moving to the IEEE 802.11ac standard, the infrastructure is in place for broad adoption by PCs, tablets and smartphones, opening up significant new opportunities for 5G WiFi to be integrated into mass market platforms.

“802.11ac chips have started shipping in significant quantity in 2013 and by the end of 2014, 11ac is expected to be included in more than 50 percent of total Wi-Fi ICs shipped,” said Peter Cooney, Practice Director, ABI Research. “There will be rapid adoption across many devices with high end smartphones, laptops and tablets leading the race.”

Broadcom’s 5G WiFi technology is currently powering the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone and HTC One smartphone. Additionally, the company’s 5G WiFi is integrated into select LG Digital TVs and the ASUS ROG G75VW gaming laptop, as well as routers from Belkin, Buffalo, Cisco, D-Link, Edimax, NETGEAR, Samsung and Tenda.