Wi-Fi 8 Access Point (AP) Shipments (Residential & Enterprise)

In July 2025, the first Working Group (WG) letter ballot on the draft 1.0 (D1.0) of Wi-Fi 8 was initiated by the Task Group (TGbn). The standard is expected to be finalized in early 2028. ▪ Early prototypes of Wi-Fi 8 equipment are expected to arrive next year in 2026, and in 2027 over 0.4 million pre-standard Wi-Fi 8 CPE/APs are forecast to reach the market. Thereafter, Wi-Fi 8 growth will be swift, with annual shipments for Wi-Fi infrastructure of 12.5 million in 2028, followed by 37.9 million in 2029, and 81.4 million in 2030.

Wi-Fi 8 Market Outlook, 2025 to 2030

Wi-Fi 8’s value proposition is centered around its ability to deliver “ultra high reliability” via its Multi-AP Coordination (MAPC) capabilities. MAPC encompasses a range of features, which together are designed to maximize spectrum efficiency and improve performance by optimizing channel selection for all client/APs and balancing the load evenly and intelligently between APs in the network. Features include Coordinated Spatial Reuse (Co-SR), Coordinated Beamforming (Co-BF), Coordinated OFDMA (Co-OFDMA), and Coordinated Time Division Multiple Access (Co-TDMA), Coordinated UL MU MIMO (Co-UL-MU-MIMO), and Joint Transmission (JT). Although aspects of MAPC were first proposed for Wi-Fi 7, they were never introduced, with the community leaving implementation until Wi-Fi 8.

Because Wi-Fi 8’s advanced new features require multiple APs for operation, Wi-Fi 8 will lead to a greater number of CPE being deployed in consumer homes. This is one of the factors helping to drive overall CPE shipment expansion later in the decade.

The market is divided on the potential for Wi-Fi 8. While some anticipate strong levels of demand for its high reliability features, others are concerned that the high reliability value proposition will not resonate well with ISPs that historically focused on throughput. Marketing the new capabilities to consumers may also be challenging, as improved reliability is harder to convey in metrics