Don’t believe the hype about WiFi 8 in 2026
There is always a new wireless technology on the horizon and in 2026 that’s going to be WiFi 8 – the 802.11bn standard. There will be plenty of vendors launching products and trying to persuade you to buy their products right away. Our advice is that you should wait – for two very simple reasons – first, it is not ready and second, nothing can connect to it.
It’s not ready
Firstly, the standard is nowhere near being completed yet. The details of the technology won’t be confirmed and ratified until at least 2028. At present, we can’t be sure of exactly what it will include. WiFi access points released ahead of the standard may have technologies and features that are not included in the final version of WiFi 8, or they may end up having incompatibilities with that standard. Consequently, when you – eventually – do upgrade to client devices that can make use of WiFi 8, they may not work properly or be able to use all the features of devices designed and built prior to ratification of the standard.
You can’t connect anything yet
Until the standard is ready, device manufacturers won’t be able to include WiFi 8 connectivity in laptops, tablets, smartphones or any other product. They won’t try to jump the gun as it could mean that there will be compatibility issues and users will find that they can’t connect to WiFi 8 properly at some locations. That would completely defeat the object of having a recognised standard to which everyone in the industry sticks to.
When will it make sense?
When we get much closer to the ratification of the WiFi 8 standard and that’s not expected until September 2028. It’s only then that client devices that can use WiFi 8 will start to appear and you can consider upgrading.
In the interim, we strongly recommend that you do step up to WiFi 7 – this is now a well-established and verified standard that is widely supported and will give you good future proofing for at least two or three years. Realistically, you should not be looking at WiFi 8 until 2029 or later.
For 2026, although it may be persuasive, our recommendation is don’t believe the hype.
If you’d like more information about our WiFi 7 access points, please contact us or get in touch with your nearest Zyxel Networks partner.
