When it comes to routers, Synology might not be the first brand that springs to mind, but the company has produced some interesting routers, especially when you take into account its custom OS, the Synology Router Manager, or SRM for short. The company has teased a new addition to its small family of routers, which should launch at some point in the first quarter of next year, that brings with it a few interesting features.
The RT6600ax as it’s called, will be one of the first routers to support the UNII-4 WiFi band, also known as the 5.9 GHz band. This is an extension of the 802.11ax/WiFi 6 band and it’s not related to WiFi 6E which uses the 6 GHz band. UNII-4 only adds a total of four 20 MHz WiFi channels, but the key here is that it allows for a third 160 MHz wide channel, something that could be handy in congested locations. For now, UNII-4 is only going to be usable in the US, although more countries are likely to be considering opening up the extra frequencies for WiFi usage. That said, it’s unlikely that Europe and Japan will allow it, since neither region supports the UNII-3 frequency band.