Oman becomes first country to offer Wi-Fi 7 at airports
What's the story
Oman has become the world's first country to deploy Wi-Fi 7 technology across its airports. The tech upgrade, done in collaboration with Chinese tech giant Huawei, promises faster, more secure, and reliable internet connectivity for passengers. This move is part of Oman's Vision 2040 plan and demonstrates the country's commitment to modernizing airport operations through advanced technology and innovation in aviation.
Technological leap
Wi-Fi 7: A step toward modernizing airport services
The deployment of Wi-Fi 7 is a major step in Oman Airports' (a government company) strategy to modernize services and enhance the passenger journey. The organization hopes to improve operational efficiency with a faster and more secure digital infrastructure. It also aims to provide a seamless travel experience for passengers, from check-in to boarding, and prepare its airports for future demands like increased passenger traffic and new digital services.
Advancements
Wi-Fi 7 offers speeds up to 46Gbps
Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) offers a massive leap in performance, achieving theoretical speeds up to 46Gbps—nearly five times faster than Wi-Fi 6. This speed is unlocked by doubling the channel width to 320MHz (much larger "pipe" for data transfer) and utilizing 4K QAM data encoding (more data in the signal). A core innovation is Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which significantly reduces latency by allowing devices to use multiple frequency bands simultaneously for reliable, lag-free connections, essential for AR/VR and 8K streaming.