According to the WBA's 2023 Industry Report, over a third (33%) of service providers, technology suppliers, and organizations have plans to install Wi-Fi 7 by the end of 2023.
Wi-Fi 7 also known as IEEE 802.11be, dubbed Extremely High Throughput (EHT), is the next amendment of the IEEE 802.11 standard was first approved in 2019.
Wi-Fi 7 has twice the bandwidth and three times higher data rate of Wi-Fi 6, with channel widths up to 320MHz. It also supports 4096-QAM, Multi-Link Operation (MLO), 16 spatial streams and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) protocol enhancements, and Flexible Channel Utilization, deemed an improvement over previous standards. Wi-Fi 7 can give three times the speed of Wi-Fi 6 thanks to broader channels and 4096-QAM capabilities. This is thought to be crucial for providing whole-home multi-gigabit Wi-Fi connectivity.
Speeds are expected to reach a theoretical maximum of 46 Gbit/s.
In addition, the report emphasizes how Wi-Fi 7 provides increased support for latency-sensitive application cases.
Devices in the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands may use multi-link operation (MLO) to boost performance by aggregating numerous connections or to swiftly relocate essential applications to the best band by leveraging smooth switching between connections. Wi-Fi 7 devices may avoid interference while using Wi-Fi channels with no delay vital traffic thanks to fast link switching.
According to the WBA, this and other new capabilities make Wi-Fi 7 perfect for extended (XR), augmented (AR), and virtual reality (VR) applications, as well as other applications requiring high speed, low latency, minimum jitter, and high connection stability.
Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said: "What we’re seeing here is the industry at large identifying increasing value in Wi-Fi technology in the wake of highly anticipated new use cases. What’s more, service providers, equipment manufacturers and enterprises around the world know that those use cases are best served in a converged environment, where Wi-Fi and 5G complement each other. Therefore, we’re seeing the industry advance at breakneck pace toward Wi-Fi 7, with mobile operators leveraging Wi-Fi as part of their 5G strategies to maximize coverage and optimize capacity – it’s all about the user experience. This includes how people and things connect to the networks – automatically, securely and with privacy assured and that is where OpenRoaming provides the essential ingredient."
Next to it Adlane Fellah, Senior Analyst at Maravedis being take a part in making a report, said: "Ensuring a predictable quality Wi-Fi experience has become the main driver of innovation and collaboration in the industry. In a post-pandemic world, consumers and businesses expect more from Wi-Fi and rely on it more than ever. Immersive experiences, low latency applications and seamless roaming will drive the Wi-Fi industry for the foreseeable future."
Other notable findings from this study emphasize the importance of convergence between Wi-Fi and mobile technology in order to create an uninterrupted user experience: in corporate markets, 70% believe Wi-Fi and 5G will live together, with 61% believing convergence would provide for greater flexibility in enterprise products and services, and according to 53% of respondents, convergence of licensed and unlicensed technology is vital or important for the present company strategy.