Why do we need WiFi 7?
Technology is an integral part of our work and home lives now and has become a huge global industry. It’s estimated that more than half (54%) of the world’s population – some 4.3 billion people – now owns a smartphone, while 65% of the world’s population – over 5.3 people – have access to the internet.
In developed countries, just about everyone has a smartphone, laptop or tablet and WiFi has become an absolute staple of everyday life. In every office, hotel, guest house, café, bar, shop, station, airport, school or college, leisure centre, sports arena, stadium, theatre, and home, we expect to be able to connect to WiFi.
A good experience?
Not only do we readily assume that we will be able to get online, but we also expect the experience to be good. But when you get quite a lot of users trying to connect to a WiFi network at the same time, this can cause issues. With older versions of the wireless standard, performance can start to degrade as soon as the log-ons move into double figures. Add to that any complications caused by radio wave interference and the physical attributes of a building that can block those signals, and you can end up with poor connections that are not as consistent or reliable as you’d like them to be.
At the same time, we’re all trying to do more online. More apps, services and data are now stored in the cloud; we all make constant use of video conferencing and collaboration; and more of us stream and download HD or UHD video. As a result, we need good, reliable, dependable WiFi when we’re at home, on the office, or out and about.
This is why we expect there to be a shift over the course of 2024 to higher-performance and more stable and consistent WiFi 7 technology. While some will choose to move to WiFi 6/6E solutions instead, which will be perfectly suitable in quite a few scenarios, over the next few months more WiFi 7 options will become available and its appeal will grow.
More options
Having launched a high performance WiFi 7 access point – the WBE660S – in October 2023 (this was one of the very first WiFi 7 APs to arrive on the market), we’re now getting ready to release a mid-range WiFi 7 device – the NWA130BE – which will be a good choice for SMBs and home users that want the best WiFi performance they can possibly get. We’ll be adding more devices later in the year to provide options for every kind of organisation and user, whatever their scale, needs or budget.
As more laptops, tablets and smartphones that can make use of this latest wireless technology start to arrive in the market, we fully expect to see a steady but certain migration to WiFi 7. If you’d like to learn more about the technology and assess your options, please get in touch with us at Zyxel Networks or with one of our trusted partners.
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