Qualcomm has taken the 802.11ac Wave 2 WiFi chips, which it launched precisely a year ago, and changed them radically, to offer a new ‘tri-radio’ architecture, supporting two 5 GHz connections alongside one 2.4 GHz band. ‘Tri-radio’ does not, at this stage anyway, include 60 GHz and the WiGig technology which inhabits that band. Qualcomm is working on that, and acquired Wilocity to help, but this new chip remains focused on 11ac and the traditional WiFi bands, lengthening the life of the ‘big chip’ approach to WLAN. This approach involves improving coverage and data rates across the WiFi home by adding new radios, although many current operator RFPs are pointing in a different direction – using multiple access points meshed…