Wi-Fi 7 Explained — What Actually Changes

Wi-Fi 7 — the marketing name for IEEE 802.11be — is real, ratified, and shipping. The Wi-Fi Alliance began certifying Wi-Fi 7 devices in January 2024, while the IEEE didn't formally approve the standard until September 26, 2024, and didn't publish the final document until July 22, 2025.

Four real technical changes

**320MHz channels**: doubles Wi-Fi 6E's 160MHz cap — one of the most direct levers on raw throughput. **Multi-Link Operation (MLO)**: the genuinely new idea — one logical connection spans multiple bands simultaneously, dynamically shifting traffic to whichever band has least congestion. **4096-QAM modulation**: more bits per transmission than Wi-Fi 6's 1024-QAM, though it needs a strong, low-noise connection to actually use. **Higher-order MIMO**, up to 16×16 in the full spec, though current consumer gear mostly uses 4×4 per radio.

A concrete example

TP-Link's Deco BE85 mesh system is rated BE22000, uses 320MHz-wide 6GHz channels with 4K-QAM, and provides 12 total spatial streams with wired 10-gigabit ports for backhaul.

The honest buying takeaway

Wi-Fi 7's 6GHz-band improvements are genuine engineering, not vaporware. But most households don't have internet plans or enough Wi-Fi 7-capable devices yet to extract the theoretical maximums being marketed — Wi-Fi 6E remains a legitimately good, cheaper choice for typical home broadband speeds in 2026.