Industry Reports

WBA Annual Industry Report 2024

The WBA Annual Industry Report 2024 is a must-read for anyone wanting to know exactly where Wi-Fi is and where it’s headed. Based on input from 200 enterprises, governments, fixed and mobile operators, vendors and other organizations worldwide, the WBA Annual Industry Report 2024 showcases how Wi-Fi technology continues to evolve in ways that anticipate the needs of consumers, businesses, enterprise verticals, smart cities and service providers.

Wi-Fi 6, 6E and 7 top the list of wireless technologies that network operators, ISPs, device and chipset vendors, enterprises and other companies plan to deploy by the end of 2024 — ahead of CBRS, DAS and private 4G/5G.

Furthermore, confidence in investment across the sector is rising with 58% saying they are more confident in investing in Wi-Fi compared to a year ago even though the business model remains the most pressing challenge for new deployments. 6GHz spectrum availability also remains front of mind with two thirds deeming it an important issue for 2024.

The report also explores how Wi-Fi benefits 14 vertical markets, including rural communities, connected transportation, health care, aviation and manufacturing. It also provides an update on Wi-Fi’s technology evolution, such as IEEE 802.11bf WLAN Sensing, 802.11bh Randomized MAC Addresses and 802.11bi Enhanced Data Privacy.

WBA Annual Industry Report 2023

The last twelve months have been exceptionally rich for Wi-Fi both in terms of innovation and market adoption boosted by a favorable regulatory environment. There are more than 18 billion Wi-Fi devices in use today, and Wi-Fi generates an economic value of $3.5 trillion. Wi-Fi remains the dominant indoor technology and enjoys a momentum driven by a combination of factors. These include: the impact of the pandemic on internet usage (with Wi-Fi traffic doubling ); the game-changing addition of the 6GHz spectrum band around the world; the rapid commercial availability and market adoption of Wi-Fi 6/6E and the flurry of innovative services ranging from OpenRoaming™ to Wi-Fi sensing.

Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 promises to supercharge deterministic Wi-Fi with new techniques— such as multi-link operation and time-sensitive networking—while leveraging spectrum dynamically with automatic frequency coordination. Industries from hospitality to healthcare and transportation to smart cities are embracing this predictable WiFi to support new use cases and business models.

To find out more, download the WBA Industry Report 2023.

WBA Annual Industry Report 2022

The 2022 WBA Annual Industry Report takes a look at the industry trends and drivers occurring in the Wi-Fi industry with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reinforcing the central role of Wi-Fi for indoor connectivity in all aspects of our lives. In the last two years, Wi-Fi has become the lifeline for working, learning, playing and increasingly for telemedicine and other sensitive applications. With success comes greater responsibility. Ongoing standardization work and innovation are aimed at creating a supercharged and predictable Wi-Fi that delivers a high quality experience.

The momentum enjoyed by Wi-Fi is driven by a combination of factors. These include the game-changing addition of the 6GHz spectrum band in a growing number of countries around the world; the rapid commercial availability and market adoption of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E; and the flurry of innovative services ranging from the WBA OpenRoaming™ to Wi-Fi sensing.

The Wi-Fi experience is becoming more deterministic thanks to the combination of technology innovations resulting in higher throughput and lower latencies. Wi-Fi 7 promises to supercharge Wi-Fi 6 with new techniques such as multi-link operation and time sensitive networking while leveraging spectrum dynamically with automatic frequency coordination. Wi-Fi is also increasingly integrated into cellular networks both at the access and core network level.  Industries from hospitality to healthcare and transportation to smart cities are embracing this deterministic Wi-Fi to support new use cases and business models. They also use Wi-Fi to support their own digital transformation, empowering their employees and increasing their overall operational efficiency.

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WBA Annual Industry Report 2021

2021 promises to be a significant year in the world of Wi-Fi, according to this years’ WBA Annual Industry Report. With COVID-19 and global lockdowns, 2020 has been a challenging year which has reinforced the important role that Wi-Fi has to play in keeping the world connected. During lockdown, traffic patterns inevitably shifted from an office setting to a home setting, with many cellular and broadband providers seeing massive, sustained increases in traffic across residential areas. The stability of Wi-Fi has arguably been the unsung hero of this situation – it has kept a lot of things moving and working at a time when failure would have resulted in a much bleaker situation for people and business.

As 2021 unfolds Wi-Fi will be important to businesses and consumers in many different ways, and the richness and diversity of services it enables are growing in line with new spectrum, standards and business models.

With Wi-Fi 6 going mainstream in 2021 and Wi-Fi 6E developments closely following, these final results highlight how the Wi-Fi platform is constantly evolving and so enabling additional services and business cases. Despite the challenges of 2020, the clear roadmap to next generation standards – with enriched spectrum, OpenRoaming and convergence with 5G – is clearly instilling high levels of confidence in Wi-Fi to support a very wide range of applications and revenue streams in the coming year.

As well as reviewing the year, the report addresses emerging trends and business models in key vertical markets such as Retail, Aviation, Hospitality, Smart transportation, IoT,  healthcare and general industry. In addition, it charts the progress of technology trends and developments including standards evolution, OpenRoaming, Mesh Wi-Fi, and Mobile edge Computing. All these topics and more are covered in this year’s Report. We hope it provides a valuable guide to the varied and influential work the WBA carries out in the world of Wi-Fi and unlicensed spectrum technology; and inspires you to take part in the rich and business-critical agenda that lies ahead in 2021.

WBA Annual Industry Report 2020

Today there are over 9 billion Wi-Fi devices globally; This is easily the most dynamic time for anyone involved with Wi-Fi – from service providers to technology vendors – as the industry addresses massive opportunities from Wi-Fi 6 and unlicensed spectrum to 5G convergence, Wi-Fi roaming and IoT. Wi-Fi is a multi-billion dollar industry which reaches into every area of our lives, in home, at work and leisure and increasingly in the way machines talk to each other (IoT).

With non-stop innovation in the industry, Wi-Fi will continue its incredible growth creating both opportunities and challenges and in this year’s Annual Industry Report we take a look at the key take-outs for 2019 and look ahead over the next 18-24 months as Wi-Fi keeps evolving, powering new devices and applications, and reaching new users. Never has there been a more exciting time – so if you haven’t already, join the Wi-Fi revolution!

City Wi-Fi Roaming Report 2019

The WBA City Wi-Fi Roaming Trial is part of the World Wi-Fi Day initiative, with an overall goal of accelerating affordable wireless connectivity around the world. The Trial aims to promote and foster the adoption of Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) around the globe.

These initiatives deliver a fully-operational NGH Wi-Fi network on a large scale, and partnerships with city authorities, operators, technology players and roaming hubs are raising participation numbers by a large margin.

The Trial allows residents and visitors of major cities around the world to automatically and securely roam between public Wi-Fi networks.

WBA Annual Industry Report 2019

Today there are over 8 billion Wi-Fi devices globally; Wi-Fi is a multi-billion dollar industry which reaches into every area of our lives, in home, at work and leisure and increasingly in the way machines talk to each other (IoT).

With non-stop innovation in the industry, Wi-Fi continues its incredible growth and over the next 2 years, it will revolutionize the way we think, operate and interact! This creates both opportunities and challenges and in this year’s Annual Industry Report we take a look at the key take-outs for 2018 and look ahead over the next 18-24 months as Wi-Fi keeps evolving, powering new devices and applications, and reaching new users. Never has there been a more exciting time – so join the Wi-Fi revolution!

WBA Annual Industry Report 2017/18

This year’s Annual Industry Report from the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) comes at a highly significant time for the wireless ecosystem. As user demands for fast, reliable, affordable wireless data continue to rise, service providers are also considering how to expand and transform their business models with new use cases. As Wi-Fi and other technologies evolve, there is the opportunity to connect a vast array of devices, vehicles, sensors and buildings, to support applications which have scarcely been possible before. Many of these discussions about new connected services and business cases are taking place in the context of the next generation of wireless technologies, 5G. Like most stakeholders, the WBA believes that 5G will, unlike previous generations of standards, be more than a cellular radio definition. Instead, it will be a broad platform which integrates multiple radio access technologies (RATs) in unlicensed, shared and licensed spectrum. This year’s report examines these business opportunities in detail, along with the technology and spectrum developments which will enable them.

WBA Industry Survey 2016 – Key Takeaways

Take a look at some of they key takeaways from our 2016 Industry Survey, with findings on Next Gen Wi-Fi, monetization strategies, coexistence and convergence, and more.

The Unlicensed Road to 5G – WBA Industry Report 2016

The Unlicensed Road to 5G – Unlicensed spectrum technologies have come a long way from being the disruptive younger sibling of the licensed-band networks, to having an equal place at the table. Indeed, the WBA Annual Report in this year looks beyond unlicensed spectrum on its own, and towards the rising levels of convergence with licensed technologies, to enable new performance levels and flexibility for service providers of all kinds to paving the way to 5G. Download the report now and learn your way to 5G!