I read this stuff and just think "so the SoCs just have to be 3x as expensive and power consuming to manage double / triple the channels, while still broadcasti

I read this stuff and just think "so the SoCs just have to be 3x as expensive and power consuming to manage double / triple the channels, while still broadcasting at a higher frequency, plus doing computations for beamforming and its ilk". Pretty much all this guarantees is that wireless n routers will stay $50, AC will stay $100 - 150, and AC-2013 will be $200+, due to complexity. Maybe in a few years n routers will spin down demand and AC will have market effects drop the price, but then I worry about spectrum limitations. We already see huge issues with n routers congesting on the 2.4 band, and making channels even wider for AC means congestion leads to even worse bandwidth and range loss.