Wi-Fi 7, the latest standard certified in 1Q 2024, maximizes the 6 GHz band for enhanced performance. Despite the FCC opening this band in the US five years ago, global access varies: Mainland China and India lack unlicensed 6 GHz, and the EU restricts it. This disparity divides the market into dual-band Wi-Fi 7 (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) and tri-band (including 6 GHz) versions. Despite the stark performance differences between the two varieties, both are marketed under the same ‘Wi-Fi 7’ banner, creating unnecessary ambiguity. This market partitioning is set to persist until 2027, when global intelligence firm ABI Research projects that 38.7% of all Wi-Fi 7 APs will be dual-band.
“The market for dual-band Wi-Fi 7 has far exceeded expectations, and the fractured state of unlicensed 6 GHz access globally confirms that it’s here to stay. Given this, the industry needs to devise a clear method of differentiating between fully fledged tri-band Wi-Fi 7, and the pared-back dual-band variant. If they fail to do this, consumer and enterprise confusion will increase and confidence in the new standard may suffer,” says Andrew Spivey, Principal Analyst at ABI Research.
In recent years, market instability has turned the Wi-Fi industry on its head. Whereas some vendors suffered severely and could not regain their previous market shares, others exploited the opportunity and have captured business from their competitors through predatory pricing and exemplary customer care. Arcadyan and ZTE are two examples of the latter. The past 12 months have also been a resounding success for TP-Link, which, through its Aginet sub-brand, has finally achieved its ambition of expanding into the ISP market. The arrival of Wi-Fi 7 has also provided ISPs with an opportunity to differentiate and to raise Average Revenues Per User (ARPU) through the deployment of hardware supporting the latest standard. In the U.S., Charter Communications became the first tier 1 ISP to introduce Wi-Fi 7 in 4Q 2024, and AT&T and Comcast are preparing to release their Wi-Fi 7 Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) in mid-2025. In Europe, ISPs, including EE, Bouygues Telecom, Iliad Italia, and Swisscom, have already introduced Wi-Fi 7.
“Heightened market competition has unsurprisingly resulted in a significant drop in equipment average selling prices, challenging vendors’ ability to maintain profit margins. To counter this development, ecosystem vendors need to harness the latest Wi-Fi innovations and incorporate attractive value-added services into their hardware to ensure product differentiation between themselves and the competition and create additional revenue generating opportunities,” concludes Spivey.
