Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Pixel owners in the US are reporting that the 6GHz hotspot option is now available on their device.
- This option has been available for Pixel owners outside of the US, but not within the US.
- It’s unclear when this change was made.
If you’re in need of Wi-Fi for whatever reason, you can turn your Pixel phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot. You can even pick the connection speed by going into the settings. If you live outside of the US, you can choose 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz for your connection speed. However, those of us who do live in the US are stuck with 2.4GHz and 5GHz. But it looks like that is starting to change.
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A US Pixel 9 Pro XL owner has taken to Reddit to say that they recently noticed that the 6GHz hotspot option is now available on their device. The option is no longer grayed out, like in the screenshot below. They claim that this change showed up during the latest Android beta.
Ryan McNeal / Android Authority
A few others have chimed in, also claiming that the option is now available. One commenter with a Pixel 10 Pro XL reports seeing the option after the latest update. A Pixel 10 owner also says 6GHz is available on their device. While another claims they have it, and they’re on the latest stable version of Android.
As mentioned earlier, the 6GHz hotspot option was previously unavailable in the US. This was likely due to regulatory restrictions in the US against using 6GHz Wi-Fi outside without Automatic Frequency Coordination (AFC). The FCC opened up the 6GHz band late last year for low-power mobile devices. However, acting as an access point may require more power than is allowed, exceeding that threshold.
According to our Editor-at-large Mishaal Rahman, Android does seem to have support for AFC. However, he was unable to determine exactly where in the code 6GHz Wi-Fi is disabled when the Wi-Fi country code is set to the US. As a result, we were unable to find when Google made this change. So it’s unclear how long the 6GHz option has been available.
If you live in the US, is the 6GHz option showing up on your Pixel phone? Let us know in the comments below.
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