Samsung has announced that it is working on new Wi-Fi technolgy that is theoretically up to five times faster than what we use today. The new 60GHz Wi-Fi technology has a maximum throughput of 4.6Gbps or 575MB per second, compared to the 108MB per second speeds we're limited to now. The company notes that it would take three seconds to transfer a 1GB video file over this new technology and uncompressed high-defnition video can be streamed between mobile devices and TVs with no delay.

Of course, all of this is theoretical, and the 60GHz frequencies that Samsung's new 802.11ad technology relies on come with their own unique challenges compared to the 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks we use today. 60GHz waves don't penetrate walls or buildings very well at all, making covering a whole house difficult. Samsung says it has developed new antennas to alleviate this problem, and the 60GHz network doesn't suffer from the same congestion problems as the lower frequency systems.

Samsung says it will use the new 60GHz technology in a variety of products, including audio visual and medical devices and telecommunications equipment. It also says the new standard will be a big part of its push into the automated smarthome market. We could see products with the new Wi-Fi capabilities as early as next year, but it will likely be a long time before they are as ubiquitous as the 2.4GHz and 5GHz devices we use today.