By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Innovation and opportunity have been guiding buzzwords during our 11 years of organising Wi-Fi congresses – and our event this year is no different: The Wi-Fi industry is thriving and WWC Mountain View 2026 will once again showcase the cutting edge in Wi-Fi. And it will – as always – also be the world’s only fully independent forum where the entire ecosystem will benefit from free and open debates covering our most important challenges for the years ahead. Here’s your guide to WWC USA 2026.
Wi-Fi 8 is already here! What will the new standard bring?
The long list of super high-reliability features that will – eventually – constitute Wi-Fi 8 is ready in draft form and some vendors are already demonstrating Wi-Fi 8 capabilities. So how will Wi-Fi 8 impact the world of connectivity? How will it impact all things AI? Find out from Qualcomm, MediaTek, Intel – and many others as Wi-Fi 8 becomes one of our big themes at WWC Mountain View 2026.
Wi-Fi QoE is king. But hey, it’s complicated…
We need to discuss all the things that make Wi-Fi great – but also all the challenges that keep tripping up excellent QoE. Real QoE solutions involve a complex interplay of interoperability, great features, certification, the right kind of testing, great UX, and many more factors. We’ve invited 7SIGNAL, Novus Labs, Rohde & Schwarz, LitePoint, Alethea, AT&T, Spectrum, Wi-Fi Alliance, and many more still TBA for a deep dive into how to secure QoE for the home and enterprise once and for all.
Monday April 13: World’s best Wi-Fi 6,7,8 standards-based training
New to Wi-Fi or need a brush-up? Our trainer Dr Sri delivers probably the world’s best Wi-Fi training covering all the tech including the latest on Wi-Fi 8. And there’s more: In the afternoon of April 13 we’re offering – for the first time – hands-on masterclass training on Wi-Fi HaLow. Last but not least stick around and enjoy our social evening event on Monday April 13 brought to you by the MediaTek Filogic 8000 Wi-Fi 8 platform.
Wi-DAS, ‘offload’, indoor coverage, & the world’s first Wi-Fi First MNO
While 5G is probably the worst and most expensive way to connect phones indoors – Wi-Fi is hands down the best, highest performance, and lowest cost. And now finally, Wi-Fi as the default solution to indoor mobile services is coming to pass across the US and across the world – with American Bandwidth. Meanwhile Wi-Fi First MNO pioneer Helium Mobile is creating the world’s most useful and comprehensive Wi-Fi service footprint. Will these pioneers be successful? We think yes.
How ultra-wideband will supercharge Wi-Fi location services
Ultra-wideband is running on Wi-Fi infrastructure to supercharge location services with extreme accuracy. In fact, UWB is already incorporated into Cisco and HPE enterprise infrastructure and we’ll see UWB increasingly deployed in coming years. This is your unprecedented chance to join the world’s first open UWB congress on Monday April 13! Don’t miss it. We’re delighted to welcome Google, Qorvo, Pinpoint, Omlox, Cisco, and many more to our first UWB Global Summit.
Can OpenLAN’s David defeat proprietary networking’s Goliath?
OpenLAN (aka OpenWiFi) is an exceptional open-source enterprise networking community and ecosystem and they’re doing incredibly well – but they’re also very quiet about it. We’re about to change all that because OpenLAN deployment numbers are going parabolic. Join us as we showcase NetExperience, Join Digital, RG Nets, ActionTec and many more to be announced at the second annual OpenLAN Global Summit on April 15!
Wi-Fi IoT is a growth engine for AI at the Edge
Wi-Fi IoT continues to be a big success story – and ahead of us are two megatrends that a promising to turbo-charge Wi-Fi IoT growth: The proliferation of ultra-low power battery-operated devices (including wearables) and AI-capable intelligent home automation. This year WWC will be featuring some of the most innovative companies in this space including Google Home, Silicon Labs, Synaptics, and others.
From grassroots to mass-market adoption with Wi-Fi HaLow
The Wi-Fi HaLow ecosystem is growing within enterprise, industry, and home broadband – and we expect more great things from HaLow already this year. For the second year running we will be conducting our Wi-Fi HaLow Global Summit featuring all the HaLow movers and shakers including Morse Micro, Vantron, Gateworks, AsiaRF, and many more. If you’re not already, this is the time to get involved in Wi-Fi HaLow.
The next gen enterprise: AIOps and/or campus NaaS – what’s driving value?
We’re excited the the world’s leading enterprise networking vendors and service providers are joining us at WWC Mountain View – and we’ll be tackling the big questions head-on with some help from world-leading analysts Sîan Morgan, Dean Bubley, Chris Dupuy, and more. We’ll also welcome Cisco, RUCKUS Networks, and many more to discover how to create new value for enterprises in the age of AI.
Critical components of effective, high-QoE enterprise Wi-Fi deployments
Enterprises are more discerning than ever expecting excellent service quality, high reliability, easy of operations, and cost efficiency. We’re excited to welcome back some of the most important ecosystem contributors in this regard: Sidos, Oberon (Chatsworth), and Ekahau. Deployment efficiency and accuracy is still paramount in the age of AI Ops.
WiFi NOW Hall of Fame induction ceremony: Join the celebration!
The WiFi NOW Hall of Fame is our opportunity to honour and thank the rare and special individuals who have made (often life-long) exceptional contributions to our industry over the years. This year is no different as we will be inducting two new highly accomplished Wi-Fi veterans into our Hall of Fame on the evening of April 15. This is also your chance to enjoy some drinks and food with your peers and mingle with our great speakers and guests.
…. and we’re not done! Watch this space as the program is due to evolve significantly during the next months. Early Bird tickets expire March 6 and can be purchased here – don’t delay. See you at the Computer History Museum on April 13 and contact me at [email protected] if you’re looking for an active role.
/Claus.
