It was built around the 5GHz spectrum, but failed to gain much traction in the consumer market.īeing the “first” Wi-Fi protocol, it faced a steep learning curve and deployment problems which delayed the deployment of 802.11a networks. 802.11a (5GHz WiFi)Ĩ02.11a was a standard in 1999 which promised to bring network connections to devices delivered over the air instead of through copper cables. These days, it’s getting pretty crowded, and to help address the digital noise that comes with it, 5GHz WiFi is making a comeback. Devices based on 802.11b were generally less expensive and more readily available than those based on 802.11a, so the b specification quickly became the consumer standard. From a consumer perspective, there wasn’t much difference between the two. Way back when Wi-Fi first came out, there were two versions that you could chose from: 802.11a and 802.11b. The differences are very much specific to the environment in which each network is being used. While this could be the case in certain situations, there are many reasons why (from a technical perspective) 5GHz WiFi may perform better than 2.4GHz WiFi similarly, there are reasons why 2.4GHz WiFi may work better for you than 5GHz WiFi. Many have opined that using 5GHz rather than 2.4GHz is nothing more than a manifestation of a “placebo effect”. We’ve updated our 5GHz WiFi article to help address some of the points our readers have brought up, as well as to clarify the theories at work.