Components shortages have slowed the natural take up of Wi-Fi 6E, and now tech analysts are expecting shortages to last until the end of this year.
With companies such as MediaTek hosting live demonstrations of Wi-Fi 7 technology, and announcing it expects to have products available in 2023, it seems consumers may just miss out on Wi-Fi 6E and instead jump straight to the next generation.
“Although manufacturers launched Wi-Fi 6E products in mid-2021, products are either not available or they are in very limited supply,” Tam Dell’Oro, founder and CEO of telco analyst Dell’Oro Group, said in a statement.
Dell’Oro noted that Wi-Fi shipments are “significantly limited because of supply constraints”, aside from in the Chinese market.
“Supply constraints have prompted manufacturers to focus on enabling the availability of popular models by re-designing these models with components that are more readily available,” Dell’Oro continued.
“With Wi-Fi 7 products shipping as early as 2023, we predict users will bypass 6E.”
Red tape in regards to spectrum regulations are also proving 6E to be a non-starter.
“In addition to supply constraints inhibiting the rate of adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, we have learned that compliance with regulations to operate within the 6 GHz spectrum are slowing the deployment process,” Dell’Oro explained.
“Compliance processes have yet to be standardised and easy to implement.”
