Qualcomm sought to capitalise on increased demand for home broadband, unveiling four new chipsets aimed at delivering high-performance connectivity using Wi-Fi 6 technology.

The company’s Immersive Home Platform comprises two 210-series and two 310-series chipsets, providing data rates ranging from 3Gb/s to 7.8Gb/s.

Its lower-tier 210-series features dual-band Wi-Fi 6 technology, compatible with the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, to deliver as much as a 2.6-times improvement in wireless speeds compared with Wi-Fi 5. The 310-series employs Wi-Fi 6E technology to add a third band into the mix, using the 6GHz for backhaul to help alleviate congestion and offer even faster speeds.

Nick Kucharewski, Qualcomm VP and GM of wireless infrastructure and networking, said in a briefing the chipsets are “our most advanced Wi-Fi offering for the home ever”, adding they will help deliver “the bandwidth and particularly the latency that you need for immersive gaming or latency-sensitive two-way communication like video conferencing”.

Qualcomm already offers Wi-Fi 6 and 6E capabilities through its Networking Pro platform for enterprises, but Kucharewski said its new line was designed with home deployments in mind. He noted smaller silicon enables more compact form factors; Bluetooth capability easy configuration; and mesh compatibility scalable deployments.

The chips are available in sample quantities, with commercial products expected from Q1 2021.