WiFi: 802.11ac CPE Builds Steam

April 22, 2015
According to ABI Research, shipments of 802.11ac WiFi customer premises equipment (CPE) are expected to reach 71 million units this year ...
According to ABI Research, shipments of 802.11ac WiFi customer premises equipment (CPE) are expected to reach 71 million units this year. The research house says the worldwide consumer WiFi equipment market increased 5% in 2014, surpassing 166.1 million unit shipments, with devices supporting 802.11ac representing more than 11% of the total. In contrast, shipments of 802.11n devices declined 3% from 2013.

The next Wi-Fi standard likely to enter the market is expected to be 802.11ad, which is designed for speeds up to 7 Gbps. Chipset manufacturer Qualcomm recently demonstrated WiFi solutions that support tri-band: 802.11ad (60 GHz), and 802.11ac (5 GHz and 2.4 GHz).

In the enterprise WiFi market, 10.5 million access points were shipped in 2014, an 11% increase from 2013. The enterprise class WiFi access point market is expected to surpass 19.4 million unit shipments in 2020. Consumer WiFi devices shipments are expected to reach 219 million in 2020 with a faster growth in residential gateway shipments compared to access points and WiFi routers. Total consumer WiFi equipment is expected to generate $13.5 billion in 2020.