Wireless LAN market expected to grow 11% in 2023, Dell’Oro

The Wireless LAN market is expected to grow another 11 percent this year as newfound supply floods into the market, according to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group.

“Most manufacturers will be bringing enterprise-class Wi-Fi 7 products to the market in 2024, a year in which revenues are expected to contract, after the peaks of 2022 and 2023,” said Siân Morgan, Wireless LAN Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Wi-Fi 7 revenues may have a slow start but will pick up when the market accelerates again, as digital transformation projects continue to drive IT investments.

“Once Wi-Fi 7 AP shipments become material, we’re going to see a surge in LAN speeds. The uplink ports on the high-end Wi-Fi 7 products are 10 times the speed of those on most of the APs shipped today. This will mean switch upgrades and new cabling for many enterprises,” continued Morgan.

Additional highlights from the Wireless LAN 5-Year July 2023 Forecast Report:

• The liquidation of backlogs will mean record 2023 revenues for most manufacturers.
• Wi-Fi 6E adoption picked up slightly in 1Q23, but will still remain a small portion of the APs shipped in 2023.
• The vision of global spectrum harmonization is at risk leading into the World Radiocommunication Conference in November–which could increase market fragmentation and product costs.
• Public Cloud WLAN solutions continue to grow faster than the market, but recurring license costs are not keeping pace with the installed base of equipment.

Dell’Oro