As global data consumption accelerates and digital services become more bandwidth-intensive, Wi-Fi is entering a decisive phase of evolution.
From the rollout of Wi-Fi 7 and early conversations around Wi-Fi 8 to AI-driven network management and enterprise-grade security demands, the next few years will redefine how homes, businesses, and smart cities connect.
The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), the global industry body dedicated to driving the seamless and interoperable service experience of Wi-Fi across the global wireless ecosystem, has shared its 10 predictions for Wi-Fi in 2026 and beyond.
Detailed in full in the “WBA Industry Report 2026”, these predictions point to Wi-Fi entering a powerful new growth phase, with Wi-Fi 7 scaling fast while the groundwork for Wi-Fi 8 and mmWave is laid.
Equally, 6 GHz, Wi-Fi HaLow and mesh are extending reliable coverage from homes to factories and smart cities, while offload, fiber, satellite and LEO-powered in-flight services are turning Wi-Fi into a ubiquitous, carrier-grade connectivity fabric that underpins both 5G today and 6G tomorrow.
Tiago Rodrigues, president and CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance, said:
“It is clear that Wi-Fi is becoming fundamental as the digital backbone of modern business. From Wi-Fi 7 and 6 GHz to Wi-Fi HaLow and OpenRoaming, we’re seeing rapid innovation turn into real deployments that improve user experience, unlock new services, revenues and reduce costs for operators and enterprises. As 5G and, in future, 6G increasingly converge with Wi-Fi, organizations can design connectivity to achieve the outcomes they need, whether that’s smarter factories, more resilient cities or new ways to engage customers. The WBA is helping the ecosystem make that leap together.”
Ten (10) Wi-Fi Predictions for 2026 and Beyond:
1. Wi-Fi 7 adoption to accelerate
2025 saw industry adoption of Wi-Fi 7 rapidly gather pace, with consumers and enterprises eager to harness the 6 GHz spectrum band and the advanced new features of the standard.
Reflecting this strong interest in Wi-Fi 7, shipments of APs supporting the standard rose from 26.3 million in 2024 to a projected total of 66.5 million in 2025.
ABI Research anticipates that this transition to Wi-Fi 7 will accelerate further in 2026, with a forecast annual shipment number of Wi-Fi 7 APs at 117.9 million.
2. Standard Power 6 GHz to gain further traction
Standard Power (SP) 6 GHz got off to a rocky start, with protracted regulator certifications and limited infrastructure options.
Now that there is greater clarity on the regulatory landscape of SP 6 GHz, and that a wider selection of SP 6 GHz enabled equipment has emerged, we expect that 2026 will see SP 6 GHz deployments accelerate.
Large public venues, education, and the industrial manufacturing verticals will be the keenest adopters of the technology. We also anticipate that additional regulators will make moves on authorizing SP 6 GHz in 2026.
3. Early prototypes of Wi-Fi 8 to emerge
Although the official Wi-Fi 8 (802.11bn) standard won’t be finalized for several years, we saw the first wave Wi-Fi 8 chipsets being unveiled at the tail-end of 2025.
We expect this to be followed in 2026 with a broader array of Wi-Fi 8 chipset announcements, and the revealing of many early prototype Wi-Fi 8 APs. A handful of these prototype Wi-Fi 8 APs will be seen early in the year at MWC 2026.
4. Wi-Fi offload gains in prominence with OpenRoaming
A plethora of trends will act to spur investments into Wi-Fi offloading in 2026. For mobile carriers, the challenge of grappling with ever-increasing traffic on their cellular networks, alongside the need to improve connectivity experiences for their customers, will drive them to expand their Wi-Fi offloading capabilities.
Many smart cities on the other hand will look to leverage Wi-Fi offloading to provide both residents and tourists with continuous free connectivity, as well as enabling a range of new applications, from smart traffic to disaster prevention.
Additional advancements in OpenRoaming in 2026 will help to drive this trend further.
5. Wi-Fi HaLow momentum accelerates
Following many successful trials from the WBA, 2025 was the year that Wi-Fi HaLow truly found its feet and commercialization of the technology began to scale up.
Throughout the year we saw numerous new chipset and infrastructure announcements, alongside the successful running of the first Wi-Fi HaLow Global Summit and the launch of a new marketing program for Wi-Fi HaLow from the Wi-Fi Alliance.
We expect the momentum behind Wi-Fi HaLow to continue in 2026.
This will include additional product announcements, and exciting deployments which demonstrate the real-world applications of the technology.
6. Greater clarity on how Wi-Fi and 6G will converge
The WBA’s vision statement for 6G highlights how the upcoming 3GPP standard will be built around a collaboration with Wi-Fi and on harnessing both technologies for the achievement of the greatest cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency.
As the cellular industry gradually begins to gear up for 6G throughout 2026, we expect that we will get further clarification on the exact nature of the 6G/Wi-Fi collaboration.
7. Wi-Fi on airplanes witnesses a major advancement
The Quality of Experience (QoE) for in-flight Wi-Fi is set to undergo a major enhancement with the emergence of connectivity underpinned by Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, which have the potential to enable significantly faster speeds, lower latencies, and uninterrupted connectivity.
2026 will see a multitude of airlines, including British Airways (BA) and United, adopt in-flight Wi-Fi solutions supported by LEO satellite constellations for the first time.
BA, alongside many others, will at the same time make Wi-Fi access available for free to all passengers, irrespective of their travelling class, greatly expanding in-flight Wi-Fi access.
8. Advances in broadband access improve and expand connectivity
Fiber penetration will continue to rise across 2026, with the number of fiber broadband subscriptions reaching a new record of 808.7 million at the end of 2026, up from an estimated 776.3 million at the close of 2025, which itself was a major leap from the 745.5 million at the end of 2024.
At the same time, the continued expansion of satellite broadband will help to enable reliable, high-performance connectivity to the unconnected and underserved.
Accordingly, the total number of worldwide satellite broadband subscriptions will increase from 6.76 million at the close of 2024 to 12.67 million by the end of 2026.
In Nigeria, broadband penetration crossed 50% in 2025.
9. Mesh adoption continues to rise
Consumers are increasingly turning to Wi-Fi Mesh to extend coverage and eliminate blind spots throughout the home, as well as to enable the delivery of additional services.
In the early 2020s much of the demand came through the retail channel, but Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are now beginning to scale up their Wi-Fi Mesh deployments in an effort to raise ARPUs (Average Revenues Per User) and to improve customer Quality of Service (QoS).
Reflecting this growing demand, annual shipments of Wi-Fi Mesh equipment are projected to rise from 41.7 million in 2024 to a total of 63.6 million in 2026.
10. Important progress on Integrated Millimeter Wave (mmWave) Wi-Fi (802.11bq)
With the Project Authorization Request for 802.11bq initiated back in December 2024, the 802.11bq working group has now begun exploring how Wi-Fi can best utilize the 60 GHz spectrum band.
Whilst project completion is not expected until 2029, 2026 should provide us some insight into the direction which the 802.11bq standard will take, and how the industry plans to leverage the band for the delivery of the high-gigabit, low-latency wireless transfer of data.
“WBA Industry Report 2026” is here.
