In recent years, significant attention has been directed toward the fifth generation of wireless broadband connectivity known as ‘5G’, currently being deployed by Mobile Network Operators. Surprisingly, there has been considerably less attention paid to ‘Wi-Fi 6’, the new IEEE 802.1ax standard in the family of Wireless Local Area Network technologies with features targeting private, edge-networks. This paper revisits the suitability of cellular and Wi-Fi in delivering high-speed wireless Internet connectivity. Both technologies aspire to deliver significantly enhanced performance, enabling each to deliver much faster wireless broadband connectivity, and provide further support for the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine communications, positioning the two technologies as technical substitutes in many usage scenarios. We conclude that both are likely to play important roles in the future, and simultaneously serve as competitors and complements. We anticipate that 5G will remain the preferred technology for wide-area coverage, while Wi-Fi 6 will remain the preferred technology for indoor use, thanks to its much lower deployment costs. However, the traditional boundaries that differentiated earlier generations of cellular and Wi-Fi are blurring. Proponents of one technology may argue for the benefits of their chosen technology displacing the other, requesting regulatory policies that would serve to tilt the marketplace in their favour. We believe such efforts need to be resisted, and that both technologies have important roles to play in the marketplace, based on the needs of heterogeneous use cases. Both technologies should contribute to achieving the goal of providing affordable, reliable, and ubiquitously available high-capacity wireless broadband connectivity.

近年来，移动网络运营商目前正在广泛关注被称为“ 5G”的第五代无线宽带连接。令人惊讶的是，对于“ Wi-Fi 6”的关注已大大减少，“ Wi-Fi 6”是无线局域网技术家族中具有针对私有边缘网络的功能的新IEEE 802.1ax标准。本文回顾了蜂窝和Wi-Fi在提供高速无线Internet连接方面的适用性。两种技术都希望提供显着增强的性能，使每种技术都能够提供更快的无线宽带连接，并为物联网和机器对机器通信提供进一步的支持，从而将这两种技术定位为许多使用场景中的技术替代品。我们得出的结论是，两者都可能在未来扮演重要角色，同时充当竞争者和互补者。我们预计5G将仍然是广域覆盖的首选技术，而Wi-Fi 6由于其较低的部署成本而将仍然是室内使用的首选技术。但是，区分前几代手机和Wi-Fi的传统界限正在模糊。一种技术的支持者可能会争辩说，他们选择的技术取代了另一种技术会带来好处，并要求制定监管政策，以有利于市场向他们倾斜。我们认为，这种努力需要抵制，并且基于异构用例的需求，这两种技术都必须在市场中扮演重要角色。