Wi-Fi 8 is taking shape, but the lack of universal 6 GHz access threatens to limit performance and distort regional rollouts
In sum – what to know:
6 GHz is foundational – Wide, clean 6 GHz channels are key to Wi-Fi 8’s multi-gigabit performance and low latency.
Features depend on it – Wi-Fi 8 capabilities like MAPC and uplink enhancements require contiguous 6 GHz spectrum.
Fragmentation limits impact – Without global 6 GHz access, Wi-Fi 8 performance, capacity, and adoption will vary widely.
To get Wi-Fi 8’s full capacity and performance, you will need the 6 GHz band, and many of its advanced features, including multi-AP Coordination, uplink enhancements, and low-latency roaming, depend on it; however, it’s not exactly a requirement for Wi-Fi 8 deployment. “The band is critical to the Wi-Fi industry overall, but I wouldn’t link it in particular to a version,” said Dell’Oro Group’s Research Director Siân Morgan.
From her perspective, the real question for countries without 6 GHz Wi-Fi is whether the legacy 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands can absorb future traffic loads. “That’s where it becomes critical,” she added. If congestion grows faster than available spectrum, Wi-Fi 8’s headline capabilities will be harder to realize.
That doesn’t mean, though, that there won’t be real market impacts if 6 GHz adoption remains globally fragmented. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the same thing we’re seeing with Wi-Fi 7, in that some vendors have some models that don’t actually support the 6 GHz band,” said Morgan. One vendor approach, she continued, is using a software-defined radio, which lets the same radio operate in either 6 GHz or as an extra 5 GHz radio. In a tri-radio access point, for example, you could configure it as 2.4 GHz plus two 5 GHz radios, or as 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz — all controlled through software. Another approach is to offer access points without 6 GHz support at all. That keeps costs down, since each additional radio adds hardware expense. For customers who don’t need, understand, or have access to 6 GHz, vendors may lead with these lower-cost SKUs to reduce the bill of materials.
But for enterprises and other end users, this might mean higher costs: “The more SKUs a vendor has to support, the more expensive overall it becomes, and then those costs are passed down to enterprises.” Another trend Dell’Oro is seeing with Wi-Fi 7 is that even in markets where 6 GHz is available, some vendors are still promoting dual-radio access points that don’t support the band. Enterprises may not realize this — they just see “Wi-Fi 7” and assume it’s automatically better than Wi-Fi 6. Morgan explained that if they’re not familiar with the importance of 6 GHz, a lower-cost access point without that band might seem perfectly fine, and they may not even notice they’re missing out on the full capabilities that 6 GHz brings. This problem will persist in the Wi-Fi 8 adoption cycle.
Honestly, though? Morgan said it’s too early for enterprises to be thinking about Wi-Fi 8 at all. “I mean, in 2Q25, only, like, a quarter of units shipped were Wi-Fi 7, so there’s still a lot of 6E and a lot of Wi-Fi 6 out there shipping … 2025 is going to be the year where the bulk of the market moves over to Wi-Fi 7. But we’re still in that transition now.”
Particularly in North America, precisely because of 6 GHz — and by extension, Wi-Fi 6E, acted as a sort of “semi-launch.” As Morgan explains, “Because 6E was really targeted at the regions that supported 6 GHz … those regions in particular, North America and EMEA, had a focus on 6E [and] a lot of them upgraded to 6E. The vendors serving those areas were very focused on 6E. And then they got caught in the supply constraints crunch. And then they got caught with way too much inventory.”
That over-investment in 6E gear forced vendors to slow-roll their Wi-Fi 7 introductions. In the meantime, Chinese vendors seized the opening. “And so, the vendors in China, like Huawei and H3C, really took a lead in introducing Wi-Fi 7 to the market. And Huawei made a lot of progress in shipping Wi-Fi 7 outside North America to EMEA and Latin America, and the Asia Pacific outside China.”
The result was a rare geographic inversion: Throughout 2024, Wi-Fi 7 adoption was led not by North America, but by regions across EMEA, LATAM, and APAC. That dynamic is now shifting quickly. With Cisco and other major U.S. vendors finally shipping their first Wi-Fi 7 access points, North America is poised to catch up fast. As Morgan notes, ramp-up is accelerating: “2025 is really going to be the year that North America adopts Wi-Fi 7.”
Circling back to Wi-Fi 8, Morgan was blunt: 6 GHz isn’t optional if countries want next-generation performance. “There’s no doubt about it,” she said. Without full 6 GHz access, networks will simply deliver less capacity, more interference, and lower-quality Wi-Fi. And as Wi-Fi 8 ramps up, those national policy gaps will translate directly into end-user experience gaps.
