By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
CES is over for another year and it is probably fair to say that no Earth-shattering innovations materialised at the show this time around, although as always there were important releases. In our view two of the most important were Intel going all-in on integrated Wi-Fi 7 (we covered it here) and not least startup Righ delivering what we believe could be shakeup of the CPE industry when it comes to solutions for managed home Wi-Fi (read about it here). But there were others, too.
Morse Micro’s Wi-Fi HaLow shines at CES
A topic that we will come back to many times in the course of 2025 is Wi-Fi HaLow: At CES chipset leader Morse Micro released their second-generation Wi-Fi HaLow chip (SoC) named MM8108, promising longer range, higher throughput (up to 42 Mbps), and better power efficiency – meaning better performance in every category.
The new chip boasts the world’s first 256-QAM operation below 1 GHz, a 26 dBm power amplifier, WPA3 encryption, and power saving features for battery operation (read more here). As another Wi-Fi HaLow first, Morse Micro released a reference dongle design intended to make it easy for vendors to incorporate HaLow into existing device designs. At WiFi NOW we believe that a key to HaLow adoption is the (multi-protocol) integration of HaLow into existing Wi-Fi systems for massive range increase and vastly expanded IoT capabilities, especially for industry.
In early December Morse Micro released an AP reference design that delivers usable connectivity at an impressive range of 9.9 miles equivalent to 15.9 km (read more here). Add to this that Morse Micro’s market momentum is accelerating. Among other things the company won this year’s Best Wi-Fi IoT Product for an amazing fifth consecutive year. The company has also expanded its ecosystem collaboration to include a significant list of module and AP partners in 2025 including Quectel, Vantron, and others.
ABI Research estimates that the Wi-Fi HaLow market will grow to 108 million devices shipped by 2029. Meanwhile, at WiFi NOW we’re excited to be conducting the world’s first Wi-Fi HaLow Global Summit in connection with WWC USA 2025 in Mountain View, California, on April 28 (read more here)
For a lot of excellent and detailed information on Wi-Fi HaLow don’t miss ABI Research’s analyst Andrew Zignani’s highly recommended new Wi-Fi HaLow white paper available for download here.
MediaTek & Google team up for smart home connectivity
The market for Wi-Fi IoT chips is heating up – and now another silicon giant is pushing for global IoT mass market entry. MediaTek is of course already a major provider of Wi-Fi SoCs for home broadband gateways, enterprise APs, TVs, gaming devices, and smartphones and now the company is teaming up with Google Home to address the growing market for smart home connectivity.
At CES the two tech giants announced they’re working together to develop a new MediaTek smart home chipset. “This chipset will facilitate widespread adoption of Thread and enable developers to provide more robust and responsive smart home experiences for users,” MediaTek says in a press release here. The new chip will be Filogic-branded and dubbed MT7903, integrating tri-band Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 6, and IEEE 802.15.4/Thread radios, the company says. The new chip will also support Matter, for which the Thread protocol is an important enabler.
NETGEAR launches Orbi 870 Wi-Fi 7 mesh at CES
NETGEAR’s new Orbi 870 mesh system is the third Orbi Wi-Fi 7 solution for the home, complementing the Orbi 770 and Orbi 970 systems previously released. The Orbi 870 delivers up to 21 Gbps of tri-band Wi-Fi data rate ensuring “exceptional speeds, reduced latency, and ample capacity for even the most demanding households,” NETGEAR says. The Orbi Wi-Fi 7 family now covers from 8,000 to 10,000 square feet (about 730 to 930 square meters) and tri-packs cost from US$999.99 for the Orbi 770 to US$1299.99 for the new Orbi 870 to a whopping US$2,299 for the quad-band Orbi 970. Find a useful overview and comparative chart of all the Wi-Fi 7 Orbis here.
TP-Link releases a slew of Wi-Fi 7 devices “for everyone”
True to form TP-Link released plenty of new Wi-Fi 7 devices under the heading “Wi-Fi 7 for Everyone” including a new Deco BE14000 whole home mesh Wi-Fi 7 system three-pack, capable of speeds of up to 14 Gbps while covering a 8100 square feet (about 750 square meters). Add to this TP-Links release of their first (and two of the world’s first) outdoor-rated Wi-Fi 7 mesh nodes named Deco BE65 and BE25 for extension of your mesh coverage outside the home.
“Both models feature versatile mounting options, including tabletops, wall mounts, and pole mounts, to fit any setup,” TP-Link says. The company also introduced a couple of new Archer-branded routers including the quad-band 24.4 Gbps Archer BE900 and a GE800 tri-band gaming router, all Wi-Fi 7-capable of course. For the full lineup see here.
ASUS new ROG Wi-Fi 7 gaming router is world’s first with NPU
ASUS’ ROG-brand continues to push the envelope for what gaming Wi-Fi routers are all about and CES 2025 was no exception. This time the ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI “redefines gaming networking with a built-in Neural Processing Unit (NPU)” featuring tri-core architecture with “a CPU, NPU, and MCU working in concert,” ASUS says. The company also says that the ROG “AI Game Booster and Adaptive QoS 2.0” will reduce latency by up to 34%. We’re not sure exactly how all of this works but we’re trying to find out – because it does indeed sound innovative.
/Claus.
