Wi-Fi 6 adoption reaching new heights

More than four in five (83%) service providers, vendors and enterprises worldwide have adopted Wi-Fi 6/6E technology or plan to do so by the end of next year, according to research from the Wireless Broadband Alliance.

The industry group’s WBA Annual Industry Report found that 41 countries representing 54% of the world’s GDP have authorised 6 GHz for Wi-Fi use.

The report predicts that more than 338 million Wi-Fi 6E devices will enter the market this year. Meanwhile, nearly 20% of all Wi-Fi 6 device shipments will support 6 GHz by 2022, the WBA said.

WBA CEO Tiago Rodrigues said the results show that service and equipment providers and their customers see more value than ever in Wi-Fi.

“Despite all of the uncertainty due to the pandemic, 56% of respondents said they were more confident about investing in Wi-Fi than they were a year ago,” he said.

“This confidence also shows up in the number of WBA members participating in various projects — an increase of 15% compared to 2020 — and the record 20 projects in development or already in progress. One example is their strong interest in the convergence of 5G and Wi-Fi 6, including how mobile operators can leverage Wi-Fi as part of their 5G strategy in terms of maximising coverage and capacity.”

The report also tracks adoption of the WBA’s OpenRoaming standard, which enables users to connect automatically to Wi-Fi networks around the world without the need for logins or registrations.

The report found that 40% of respondents — including 70% of respondents involved in a city-wide public Wi-Fi network — have implemented OpenRoaming or plan to do so before the end of next year.

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