By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
Enterprise Wi-Fi 8 may happen sooner than you think, Dell’Oro Group says
Enterprise Wi-Fi 7 infrastructure is expected to achieve triple-digit growth in 2026, generating more revenue this year than Wi-Fi 6E produced in its entire lifecycle, says Siân Morgan, Senior Director at Dell’Oro Group. But perhaps even more interesting is this: Dell’Oro says there’s an opportunity for vendors to change AP designs in order to decrease dependency on the highest-cost memory components, hence becoming more competitive on price.
“This represents a strong incentive to move to Wi-Fi 8,” Siân Morgan says. Dell’Oro’s Wireless LAN 5-Year July 2026 Forecast Report also says that Wi-Fi 7 growth will continue for another three years, while AIOps are driving software revenues higher. Even if higher prices suppress demand, expect WLAN market growth, Dell’Oro says. Read more here.
Starlink’s massive V3 capacity upgrade will need faster Wi-Fi – but where is it?
During SpaceX’s earnings call this week, CEO Elon Musk said the market is ‘underestimating’ Starlink. Starlink’s V3 satellites will deliver 1 Tbps of capacity, which is a nearly 10-fold increase over the previous version – and deployment is now imminent as Starlink is expected to launch its first operational V3 satellites at the end of August on board Starship’s 14th flight.
Meanwhile, Starlink’s current Router 3 (Gen 3) is still Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) with Starlink specifying 4×4 MU-MIMO/OFDMA operating on 2.4 and 5 GHz. The router neither supports 6 GHz nor Wi-Fi 6E/7, while its newer Router Mini is also Wi-Fi 6 only. Starlink will arguably need to boost Wi-Fi speeds and capacity to match the significant hike in satellite capacity, but the company has not mentioned the issue so far.
Plume takes three Gold Stevie awards for AI, product and leadership
Broadband experience platform provider Plume has won three Gold Stevie Awards for Technology Excellence, including Domain Specific AI Platform of the Year in Telecommunications and New Product of the Year in Telecommunications. CEO Dan Herscovici was also named Executive of the Year in Communication Technology. The recognition comes as Plume increasingly positions its platform around AI-driven management of the broadband subscriber experience. Read more here.
MSI launches Wi-Fi 7-compatible USB adapter ‘BE6500’ in Japan
MSI says the adapter launched in Japan on July 31, 2026, and specifically positions it as a way to add Wi-Fi 7 to laptops and desktops that don’t already support it simply by plugging it into USB. It supports 2.4/5/6 GHz, with claimed PHY rates of 2,880 Mbps on 5 and 6 GHz and 688 Mbps on 2.4 GHz.
Taiwan’s MSI is best known internationally for gaming and high-performance PCs, particularly laptops, motherboards and graphics cards, but its portfolio is much broader: desktops, monitors, peripherals, servers, industrial computing, AI/edge products, automotive electronics—and networking products including routers and Wi-Fi adapters. MSI says it operates in more than 130 countries.
Researchers use AI to improve UWB tracking of moving objects
UWB delivers centimetre-level location accuracy under ideal circumstances – but when objects are moving, pinpointing their exact (future) location becomes more challenging, especially under non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions.
Now researchers Somayeh Modaberi and Behrouz Far from the University of Calgary, Canada, say UWB location of moving objects can be substantially improved. Their model combines UWB Channel Impulse Response (CIR) information with historical trajectory data and predicts the object’s position at the time the positioning result actually becomes available. It also addresses NLOS conditions, which can substantially degrade UWB ranging. The paper can be found here.
/Claus.
