Dell’Oro Group research stated enterprise-class WLAN revenue increased by 11 per cent year-over-year to $2.2 billion in Q1 2025, with Wi-Fi 7 reaching 12 per cent of global unit shipments.
Sian Morgan, research director at Dell’Oro Group, stated the quarter marked the first time all major vendors sold enterprise class Wi-Fi 7 devices, but noted some are still dealing with large inventories of Wi-Fi 6E “and have been prioritising shipments of the older technology, which still has strong adoption”.
She explained the market is coming to the end of the Wi-Fi 6E phase, which will drive a shift over to Wi-Fi 7 “in larger numbers”.
The report stated the average selling price of Wi-Fi 7 remained lower than Wi-Fi 6E, “highlighting the fact that the early Wi-Fi 7 market has been dominated by lower-cost vendors”.
Morgan noted vendors are putting increased effort into AI models to improve WLAN operations.
“AI and machine learning are being used to perform cross-domain trouble shooting, to support front line support staff, and to create custom, dynamic dashboards,” she sated. “We expect these developments to pay off by growing recurring software revenues for WLAN vendors.”
CommScope, Ubiquiti and Extreme Networks’ WLAN revenue grew faster than the rest of the vendors in Q1, while shipments in North America surged as other regions lagged.