Wi‑Fi continues to expand rapidly as the number of connected devices and the volume of traffic grow, driven in part by the wider adoption of Next Generation Hotspot (NGH) and Passpoint technologies. Confidence in commercial deployments and the specifications for next‑generation Wi‑Fi 6 is also on the rise.
The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) Annual Industry Report 2019 shows that Wi‑Fi’s evolution is branching into new areas, from deeper integration with 5G to expanded support for Internet of Things (IoT) use cases. Reflecting that momentum, more than half of survey participants (51%) reported increased confidence in investing in Wi‑Fi compared with the previous year.
There are around 9 billion Wi‑Fi devices in use—outnumbering the global population of roughly 7.6 billion—underscoring that Wi‑Fi remains the dominant carrier of data traffic. The WBA expects Wi‑Fi 6 to maintain a prominent role alongside 5G rather than be displaced by it; operators are likely to support stronger convergence between technologies to boost overall network efficiency.
NGH and Passpoint reached a significant adoption milestone in 2018, with major operators such as AT&T committing to these solutions to deliver seamless, secure Wi‑Fi connectivity. Adoption is expected to accelerate: about 29% of respondents report already using NGH and Passpoint, while another 51% plan to deploy the technologies in the future.
For more than a decade Wi‑Fi devices have relied on the WPA2 security protocol. The Wi‑Fi Alliance has introduced WPA3 certification to offer stronger protections against modern attack methods. WPA3 adds features intended to make password‑guessing attacks more difficult and includes Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE), a more robust handshake that requires interaction to authenticate peers and derive encryption keys.
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