New Delhi, June 30, 2023.
The last few years have seen tremendous demand acceleration, globally and especially in India, for higher performance wireless connectivity across an ever-widening range of environments. Increasingly pervasive High-bandwidth, latency-sensitive applications like online gaming, enterprise collaboration with video, and streaming video are increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday life whether in public spaces, in the home, or in the workplace. As has nearly always been the case, Wi-Fi is the beating heart enabling these transitions. Wi-Fi’s historical success is primarily due to its relatively simple, scalable and cost-effective deployment model and with broadband technologies evolving quickly, fueled by technological innovation and massive public/private investment, next generation Wi-Fi 7 looks to be arriving right on time.
Wi-Fi remains nearly ubiquitous, and the accelerated shift to next generation technologies is a powerful confirmation of Wi-Fi’s central place in connected experiences. In 2023 alone, for instance, IDC forecasts shipments of 3.9 billion Wi-Fi products, scaling to 4.6 billion by 2027. India as a region presents a unique opportunity, as the recent pandemic created an urgent need among subscribers to upgrade their home internet experience. According to TRAI, India added over 12 million broadband subscribers across various technologies since 2020.
Globally, over two thirds of shipments in 2023 are expected to be Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E. The mainstream transition to Wi-Fi 6/6E happened much faster than any previous transition (over a year faster, according to the Wi-Fi Alliance). This validates vast demand for the high-performance features the next-generation technologies offer, and their alignment to the next-gen applications permeating homes, schools, workplaces and beyond. Wi-Fi 7 is no different, bringing transformational performance improvements perfectly aligned to the needs of today’s most demanding networks and applications.