This blog was written by Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance.

To start off, I would like to say that 2022 was a big year for our organization, and for the industry itself. I truly expect that this momentum will carry forward throughout the rest of 2023 and beyond!

Perhaps the biggest WBA highlight of the past year was a return to face-to-face events, with three of our Wireless Global Congress events taking place in Dubai, Chicago, and Amsterdam. It was fantastic to see everyone in person after almost 2 full years of virtual events – being able to shake hands, enjoy live presentations, and networking with our members and partners, and I can’t wait to see everyone at our 2023 events in Las Vegas and Paris. Be sure to visit our Wireless Global Congress website for the full details, and to catch up on our first 2023 event, WGC APAC, which took place in Singapore earlier this month. These events will be made even more special by the fact that 2023 is the WBA’s 20th anniversary – we’ve got a few things up our sleeve to celebrate this momentous occasion throughout the year, so stay tuned!

And now, with 2023 spread out in front of us, there are three main topics that I’d like to highlight, as I feel that they will be very important for the industry in the months and year ahead:

  1. OpenRoaming and Passpoint – Public and guest Wi-Fi has evolved significantly in recent years, and OpenRoaming is leading the charge when it comes to transforming the way that we connect to Wi-Fi in public settings. In May of 2022, OpenRoaming officially surpassed one million global hotspots, and as we move into 2023 it’s become the most successful use of Passpoint in the world – in 2023 we expect deployments to quadruple and to enjoy more growth and mainstream success in the year ahead as new opportunities emerge for its application.
  2. 6 GHz – The opening of the 6 GHz spectrum band for use by Wi-Fi is essential to maintain connectivity around the world, and ultimately for helping to connect underserved communities. It’s my belief that 2023 will be the year for harmonization on the 6 GHz band, paving the way for Wi-Fi to continue to have the most crucial role in bridging the digital divide and provide state-of-the-art connectivity for citizens at home, at work, in public venues, and across cities.
  3. Wi–Fi 7 – The continued evolution of Wi-Fi has been significant to the development of digital strategies for countries and enterprises, and the impending approval of the Wi-Fi 7 standard will bring new capabilities and much higher speeds to tackle new applications and use cases. Working-from-home, online gaming, streaming services, AR/VR/XR, IoT, the Metaverse, and much more will reap the benefits of Wi-Fi 7’s capabilities, and enterprise use cases such as education, healthcare, industry 4.0, and connected vehicles will also see vast improvements.

Above all else, I want to put a call-out to the industry to join us in honoring Wi-Fi and its positive global impact throughout the year – join us at one of our Wireless Global Congress events to hear the latest hot topics in the industry, submit your entries for the 2023 WBA Industry Awards, and celebrate World Wi-Fi Day on June 20. If you’re not a WBA member, I urge you to join us today and help us reinforce Wi-Fi as the #1 wireless broadband technology in the world.  On behalf of the WBA, I wish you all success, good health and excellent Wi-Fi in 2023!