Qualcomm enters new Wi-Fi router market in deals with Charter, EE

Qualcomm on Wednesday said it was getting into a new market for Wi-Fi routers and that Charter Communications and the UK’s EE will be among its first customers.

Qualcomm on Wednesday said it was getting into a new market for Wi-Fi routers and that Charter Communications and the UK's EE will be among its first customers.

San Diego, California-based Qualcomm is the world's biggest supplier of the chips that help mobile phones connect to cellular data networks, but it has also long had a business selling Wi-Fi chips for consumer Wi-Fi routers.

The company said Wednesday it is getting into a new segment of that market by selling what are known as gateways, a device often supplied by broadband carriers where a physical fiber-optic line from a carrier enters the home and is transformed into a Wi-Fi signal.

EE and Charter, which goes by the name Spectrum in the broadband market, said they will both use routers from Qualcomm starting next year.

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The new devices will use a new standard called Wi-Fi 7 that id designed to help data flow faster around homes where scores of devices from phones to smart televisions often use Wi-Fi.

The new Qualcomm routers will also allow carriers to prioritise traffic from some specific apps and services such as streaming video platforms that have agreements with carriers for faster speeds, a practice that is not allowed in all jurisdictions.