Today’s Wi-Fi® seeing unprecedented demand, growth underscored by Wi-Fi Alliance® members

Austin, Texas – May 11, 2022 – Since its introduction in 2019, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ has seen rapid adoption, surpassing 50 percent market share in three years compared to four years for Wi-Fi 5. This accelerated adoption is driven by demand for high performance Wi-Fi® in phones, tablets, and PCs, and advanced features and capabilities are bringing new opportunities for Internet of Things (IoT), service provider deployments, and dense public areas to deliver better experiences. Wi-Fi 6 extension into 6 GHz has further attributed to increasing demand, and Wi-Fi 6E has seen unprecedented interest among regulatory bodies worldwide, as well as strong adoption in products and in service provider and enterprise deployments. More than 2.3 billion Wi-Fi 6 products and 350 million Wi-Fi 6E products are expected to enter the market in 2022, and more than 15 percent of all Wi-Fi 6 shipments will also be Wi-Fi 6E this year1.  

In 2022, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 added enhancements to best deliver advanced use cases. Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E are optimally equipped to meet today’s connectivity demands and allow a steady rate of new product and service innovation.

“Wi-Fi 6E is widely available and here today and Wi-Fi Alliance® members are seeing strong demand that will continue for years to come,” said Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance. “Wi-Fi Alliance has certified more than 400 Wi-Fi 6E devices, equating to hundreds of thousands of interoperable Wi-Fi devices that are already delivering a high-quality user experience.”

Product vendors and enterprises are driving the transition to Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E today, and strong momentum in three particular areas underscores the need to consider these technologies in product plans and deployment decisions.

Product momentum

There are now hundreds of devices supporting Wi-Fi 6E, with more than 70 laptop models, dozens of consumer and enterprise access points, smartphones – including marquee devices like Google Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and Plus – and smart televisions. By 2025, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E are expected to surpass 80 percent market share and dominate the smartphone market2. Companies are seeing unprecedented demand for Wi-Fi 6E products, which is having positive impacts on their business, and the expanded capacity and wider channels are bringing benefits to users and enterprises. Other companies are meeting significant shipment milestones, noting that customers and carrier partners are ramping up Wi-Fi 6E today. With growing demand for Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E and a supply chain coming back into balance after the pandemic, the technologies are poised for accelerated product adoption.

Deployment momentum

Several recent announcements demonstrate the momentum by service providers around the world to make Wi-Fi 6E available to their customers. Recognizing the growth in number of home-connected devices and need for high-quality networks, service providers are bringing speed and capacity improvements through Wi-Fi 6E gateways to ensure subscribers can rely on today’s Wi-Fi as a foundational component of their digital lives. Among the reasons for deploying Wi-Fi 6E for customers include greater support for downlink and uplink speeds, reducing network saturation and improving the remote work and home entertainment network experience. Successful trials demonstrating Wi-Fi 6E's tremendous potential have delivered fast connection speeds with low latencies, and healthcare facilities and education campuses are investing in low-latency, high-capacity Wi-Fi 6E networks to deliver mission-critical, high-bandwidth applications and services.

Regulatory momentum

Two years ago, the U.S. opened the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi. Since then, more than 60 countries across Americas, EMEA, and APAC have or are considering making the band available for Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi 6E ecosystem is expanding fast, and Wi-Fi 6E certification helps ensure worldwide interoperability for devices no matter where they are deployed. Several countries, including Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates have made the upper and lower 6 GHz band (5925-7125 MHz) available for Wi-Fi 6E. By making the full band available, countries such as Saudi Arabia are looking to harness the full potential of Wi-Fi 6E, noting that Wi-Fi is “crucial” to their citizens. Other countries have opened the lower part of the band (5925-6425 MHz) and their efforts are being applauded, but Wi-Fi 6E and future generations will best deliver their full potential by using the entire 1200 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band.

About Wi-Fi Alliance® |  www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 70,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

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New applications supporting COVID-19 guidelines, global Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 momentum, and greater WPA3™ security adoption expected next year

Austin, Texas – January 11, 2021 –Wi-Fi® played a critical role in providing digital infrastructure to support increased connectivity demands during the global pandemic. With greater worldwide availability of 6 GHz, wider adoption of WPA3™ security, and global momentum of Wi-Fi 6 across more enterprise and vertical markets expected in the coming year, Wi-Fi is ready to deliver innovation and advanced connectivity when and where users need it most. As the world reflects on a challenging 2020, Wi-Fi Alliance® looks ahead at five Wi-Fi predictions for 2021 that will help people safely resume their normal activities, achieve better performance in their home networks, and deliver greater reliability and latency for telehealth, virtual learning, and telepresence.

Wi-Fi Alliance predictions for Wi-Fi in 2021 include:

1. Wi-Fi 6 global momentum

Wi-Fi 6 is the latest generation of Wi-Fi offering greater capacity, efficiency, and performance for advanced connectivity. Wi-Fi 6 will see strong global adoption across PCs, access points, smartphones, and IoT devices in enterprises, homes, and public arenas – with nearly 2 billion Wi-Fi 6 device shipments expected in 2021. The pandemic has proven a strong need for state-of-the-art networks to support more online activity. Wi-Fi 6 networks will become more widely deployed in the home and see steady rollout in the enterprise to ensure all networked devices perform at an optimal level and support environments with greater capacity and coverage. Wi-Fi 6 will be deployed in market verticals, such as industrial and hospital networks, delivering wireless efficiency and low latency connections. New connected use cases facilitated by Wi-Fi 6 will emerge to meet health and safety guidelines amid COVID-19 at transportation hubs, airports, and stadiums to deliver social distance measurement, security checkpoints, mobile concessions, health check screening, and passenger communications.

2. Wi-Fi 6E will deliver 6 GHz to users

Regulatory momentum around 6 GHz will lead to greater availability of unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi worldwide in 2021. The U.S. recently cleared unlicensed access to 1200 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band. The U.K., Europe, South Korea, Chile, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates are expected to deliver 6 GHz to their citizens before the end of the year, and many other countries are following their lead. Users will see worldwide rollout of Wi-Fi 6E devices as multiple vendors embrace 6 GHz. Up to seven superwide 160 MHz channels can be used with this newly available spectrum, triggering development and innovation for higher bandwidth applications including unified communications, AR/VR, and even holographic video. New use cases will emerge to support telemedicine, virtual learning, and telepresence that rely on Wi-Fi 6E’s speed and latency benefits. With features like OFDMA extended into the less congested 6 GHz band, Wi-Fi 6E will help address the reliability and deterministic needs demanded by industrial applications, helping facilitate the transition from wired to wireless in Industrial IoT environments. Wi-Fi Alliance certification for Wi-Fi 6E will ensure Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ devices operating in 6 GHz worldwide are secure and interoperable, and will serve as an inflection point for greater adoption.

3. Passpoint® bridges the gap between Wi-Fi and cellular

Solutions such as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint® will help bridge the gap between cellular and Wi-Fi to make Wi-Fi more accessible and secure. Passpoint streamlines Wi-Fi access and eliminates the need to reauthenticate to networks previously visited, enabling users to focus on productivity without manually switching their device between cellular and Wi-Fi to determine the best connection. The industry will see greater Passpoint adoption through initiatives such as Wireless Broadband Alliance OpenRoaming and Aruba Air Pass, to provide seamless Wi-Fi connectivity beyond a user’s home, automate roaming between cellular and Wi-Fi networks, and deliver next generation services to enterprises – all with advanced security. Passpoint, along with other Wi-Fi Alliance programs like Wi-Fi Vantage™, will help enable Wi-Fi and cellular to be stronger complements and provide enterprise-wide, citywide, and global wireless services.

4. Strong adoption of WPA3 security

The latest generation of Wi-Fi security, WPA3, brings critical updates to personal and enterprise networks to protect users wherever they connect. Wi-Fi Alliance now requires all new Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices to support WPA3 security, and in 2021 the industry will see greater adoption of WPA3 across more devices, networks, and environments – including sensitive environments like governments and financial institutions. The number of devices connected to the internet, including machines, sensors, and smart home devices is forecast to reach 41.6 billion in the next four years1. With that tremendous growth comes demand for strong security mechanisms to protect the increasing amount of user data generated by IoT devices. 

5. Wi-Fi is critical link to keep businesses and individuals connected

Wi-Fi has played a key role in helping reduce the negative impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. As the world maintained social distance, Wi-Fi limited the impact of social isolation by enabling business, education, healthcare, and other services to move online. The way users work, socialize, and communicate may never be the same as in pre-pandemic times, and Wi-Fi will now be acknowledged for delivering a strong digital foundation that enables the world to maintain productivity and economic prosperity. In 2021, Wi-Fi will help further mitigate economic damage resulting from the global pandemic. Wi-Fi will keep economies running, supporting telecommuting needs, distance learning, telemedicine, and delivering connectivity to remote or underserved areas. The need for strong, reliable multi-device connectivity highlighted during the pandemic will generate permanent effects as we continue to adapt to more of our daily activities moving online. Wi-Fi will be seen as an indispensable technology providing a key resource in many aspects of our daily lives. Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Passpoint, and other Wi-Fi technologies will drive a surge in technology innovation continuing well after the pandemic is behind us.

For 2021 Wi-Fi Alliance member predictions from AirTies, Aruba, ASSIA, Boingo, Broadcom, Cisco, CommScope, Extreme Networks, Intel, Laird Connectivity, LANCOM Systems, Linksys, ON Semiconductor, Qualcomm Technologies, and Texas Instruments, see our full video playlist here: http://bit.ly/2MId5Qx.

1IDC, June 2019

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 50,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media Contact:
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
(415) 692-0745 ext. 116

Telecom Advisory Services paper concludes Wi-Fi mitigates negative impacts of global pandemic

Austin, Texas – December 9, 2020 – A new paper demonstrates the role of Wi-Fi® in mitigating the socioeconomic disruption from the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper, released today by Telecom Advisory Services, underscores various ways Wi-Fi is helping to improve economic resiliency and is contributing to critical use cases at a personal and enterprise level.

The findings demonstrate multiple areas where Wi-Fi is essential to maintaining digital resilience during the global pandemic. At the individual consumer level, Wi-Fi delivers essential connectivity that allows users to accomplish daily activities and carry out tasks that previously required physical contact – such as grocery shopping, buying essential goods, virtual learning, and telehealth appointments – all while supporting simultaneous access to these activities at once. At the enterprise level, Wi-Fi provides workers with virtual tools for telecommuting and digitization of supply chains and distribution channels to maintain productivity when face-to-face interactions with colleagues, customers, and suppliers must be avoided. Additionally, free public Wi-Fi networks deployed outdoors have provided essential connectivity for COVID-19 healthcare facilities, “Wi-Fi on wheels” for education, and coverage in rural or underserved areas.   

“The global pandemic further highlights Wi-Fi’s role as a critical component of every country’s digital infrastructure,” said Raul Katz, President, Telecom Advisory Services. “Wi-Fi networks are a significant contributor to national resilience in the face of COVID-19.”

The paper concludes that countries with highly developed digital infrastructure can reduce the long-term, negative economic impact implied by COVID-19 by more than half, and elaborates on three areas where Wi-Fi plays the most socially impactful role during natural disasters such as the global pandemic: distance learning, telecommuting, and elder care. The findings suggest that Wi-Fi’s role in critical use cases mitigates economic damage by keeping the economy up and running and allowing people and businesses to continue operating during the global pandemic. 

To access the full paper, please visit: https://www.wi-fi.org/file/covid-19-and-the-economic-value-of-wi-fi-2020. 

About Wi-Fi Alliance®
www.wi-fi.org
Wi-Fi Alliance® is the worldwide network of companies that brings you Wi-Fi®. Members of our collaboration forum come together from across the Wi-Fi ecosystem with the shared vision to connect everyone and everything, everywhere, while providing the best possible user experience. Since 2000, Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 50,000 Wi-Fi certifications. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ seal of approval designates products with proven interoperability, backward compatibility, and the highest industry-standard security protections in place. Today, Wi-Fi carries more than half of the internet’s traffic in an ever-expanding variety of applications. Wi-Fi Alliance continues to drive the adoption and evolution of Wi-Fi, which billions of people rely on every day.

Media Contact:
Stephanie Burke
Highwire PR for Wi-Fi Alliance
wi-fi@highwirepr.com
(415) 692-0745 ext. 116