There's a new type of Wi-Fi, and it's designed to connect your smart home

The Wi-Fi Alliance is announcing a new type of Wi-Fi that's meant to work on low-power devices. It'll travel farther and even do a better job of traveling through walls. Basically, it's an all around better option for smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, at least if these claims hold up. The new type of Wi-Fi is being called Wi-Fi HaLow (pronounced "halo") and will be an extension of the upcoming 802.11ah standard. The Wi-Fi Alliance intends to begin certifying HaLow products sometime in 2018, but the first of them may begin shipping shortly before then. Essentially, this is Wi-Fi's answer to Bluetooth. If HaLow really can do what the alliance says it can, it would be a big deal.

It's essentially promising to do everything Bluetooth can, but at a longer range and with the ability to connect directly to your router, and therefore the Internet. You should be skeptical of whether it can pull that off, but HaLow has the advantage of building on top of an enormously successful existing standard. Our phones and routers will need upgraded Wi-Fi chips to work with HaLow products, but presumably that'll come in time, just as 5GHz Wi-Fi quickly arrived after its introduction. The reason that HaLow seems to have Wi-Fi superpowers is that it's operating on a much better slice of spectrum. It'll be in the 900MHz range, which has better reach and penetration than the 2.4GHz and 5GHz range that existing Wi-Fi operates in. But, like existing Wi-Fi, it'll be in operating in unlicensed spectrum, so there may be interferences.