The real-world performance & adoption of new Wi-Fi standards
We often hear buzz about Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and Wi-Fi 7 — not to mention the new 6 GHz spectrum band. But what do these new technologies actually mean for everyday experience? How much of a difference do they make? And how quickly are they being adopted around the world? And most importantly, should customers care?
To answer these questions, we partnered with our friends at Opensignal, an independent analytics company recognized for its commitment to measuring real-world mobile and Wi-Fi user experience. Opensignal provided data collected from January to March 2025, based on tens of millions of measurements from actual users around the world, primarily using Android smartphones. These tests were gathered passively through popular apps, reflecting typical consumer usage patterns.
Key Takeaways: higher Wi-Fi band, better experience
- 6 GHz Wi-Fi rules! 6 GHz found in Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 devices delivers the best broadband user experience. This is based on Opensignal’s metric of Consistent Quality, which measures how often user tests meet performance thresholds that warrant a “good enough” experience to support everyday activities.
- Newer Wi-Fi generations offer better performance. For example, a Wi-Fi 6 connection on the 2.4 GHz band will typically outperform a Wi-Fi 4 connection on the same frequency.
- It is still early days for 6 GHz. Most Wi-Fi 6 routers and phones do not support 6 GHz. Only Wi-Fi 6E and some Wi-Fi 7 models do. Even some Wi-Fi 7 devices don’t support 6 GHz. So when shopping for new Wi-Fi gear, be sure to double-check if it supports the 6 GHz band — especially if connection quality is a top priority for you.
Frequency band has a bigger influence on user experience than Wi-Fi generation
For the last 20 years, Wi-Fi has operated over two frequency bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. More recently, Wi-Fi saw a major boost with Wi-Fi 7 and Wi-Fi 6E through the introduction of the 6 GHz spectrum band. The 6 GHz spectrum means additional capacity for Wi-Fi, as well as a very clean block of spectrum for Wi-Fi to operate on.
Over the years, the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum, and to some extent the 5 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum, have gotten quite crowded with Wi-Fi as well as other radio devices in many areas. When the Wi-Fi spectrum gets crowded in an area, end users start to notice: connectivity lags, speeds slow down, and applications such as Zoom underperform. Opensignal’s data is well-positioned to assess that, using metrics such as Broadband Consistent Quality (BCQ) to evaluate real-world user experience. The data clearly shows that the frequency band (i.e., 2.4GHz / 5GHz / 6GHz) has more of an influence on user experience than Wi-Fi generation (i.e., Wi-Fi 4 / 5 / 6). Case in point, Opensignal’s data shows that, on average, WiFi 6 using 6GHz spectrum delivers seven percentage points better BCQ than Wi-Fi 6 using 5GHz. Comparing the performance of Wi-Fi 6 versus Wi-Fi 5 devices on the 5 GHz spectrum, the improvement is minuscule (0.4 ppts). When we look at the WiFi 6 using the 2.4 GHz band vs 5 GHz, the difference is 13.5 ppts!
Time spent by client devices on different Wi-Fi generations
When looking at the time the client devices spent on different Wi-Fi generations in various countries, a few trends stand out:
- Wi-Fi 7 usage is still very limited. Wi-Fi 7 is still a new technology, so unsurprisingly, device adoption is currently limited to early adopters, partially because of the price premium. During the last 25 years, billions of devices have been installed and are still operational, and a lot of non-Wi-Fi-7 devices are still sold today. It will take a lot of time before consumers decide to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7, which means that it will be a while before Wi - Fi 7 makes a major impact when looking at the entire device population.
- Wi-Fi 6 is gaining momentum and has already become the dominant standard in several countries. Among the countries analyzed by Opensignal, Canada leads in adopting newer-generation Wi-Fi, with 39% of all user tests taking place on Wi-Fi 6 networks.
- Some countries still rely heavily on older standards. For instance, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines are still primarily using Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n). It is not uncommon in developing markets with low broadband ARPUs for operators to provide customers with a free, but low-cost, gateway as part of the broadband subscription. To get the higher-performance, WiFi 6-enabled gateway, customers usually have to pay extra. And due to longer smartphone refresh cycles, many devices in developing markets are not capable of accessing 6GHz anyway.
- Wi-Fi 4, or 802.11n, was already a substantial improvement in Wi-Fi, compared to earlier dinosaur Wi-Fi generations. Wi-Fi 4 introduced spatial multiplexing. This means simultaneously transmitting multiple (in case of 802.11n, two) data streams between devices. The end result was doubling the data rates compared to prior standards. Moreover, Wi-Fi 6 supports more spatial streams than Wi-Fi 4, as well as other MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output) improvements for more robust connectivity. It also supports higher modulation schemes (more bits crammed on the same amount of spectrum), as well as other improvements.
- Some amount of Wi-Fi 6 being superior to Wi-Fi 4 can also be attributed to just overall newer and better phones, laptops, routers and access points.
Remember: Compatibility matters. Both your router (or access point) and your device must support the same Wi-Fi generation — and the 6 GHz band — to fully benefit from the improvements.
Time spent by Opensignal users on each Wi-Fi frequency band
One of the biggest advancements in Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 is access to the 6 GHz spectrum. But how widely is it actually being used?
When looking at the general population, the highest adoption of 6 GHz we saw in the data was just 3% — in Canada.
On a more positive note, the 5 GHz band is now dominant in most countries, offering a good balance between performance and availability.
To me, this just goes to show how much untapped potential there is. In Europe, 6 GHz almost doubles the amount of Wi-Fi spectrum available (adding 500 MHz more). And the spectrum’s relatively clean. When the masses of Wi-Fi devices start to use 6 GHz, we, the users, will start to see more reliable connectivity.
This switch will happen without us even noticing: The infrastructure at our offices, public spaces and our homes will get updated, so will our client devices. Without us knowing, they’ll suddenly support 6 GHz. The only thing the layman-Wi-Fi-user will notice is that the Wi-Fi just doesn’t drop connections so often, or lag so much anymore.
In the US and several other countries, 6 GHz brings even more: It provides 1,200MHz of new spectrum, over double that in Europe. This means the US and several other countries will enjoy massively better connectivity than EU in the future – unless EU regulators pull through and allocate all of 1,200 MHz of 6 GHz spectrum for Wi-Fi as well. One can hope :)
Regulation enabling 6GHz Wi-Fi
Source: WiFi Alliance https://www.wi-fi.org/regulations-enabling-6-ghz-wi-fi
But there is a mixed approach to 6 GHz allocations globally. USA, Canada, and many Latin American countries, and more, allowing the use of the full 1,200 MHz of 6 GHz Wi-Fi, meaning excellent Wi-Fi connection quality for those countries moving forward.
The trend is clear
Finally, the data shows a promising trend: Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E/7 devices are spending less time on legacy standards and more time on newer, higher-performing connections. Given the massive number of Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the world, the shift is happening faster than expected — and that's good news for everyone who cares about a fast, reliable connection.
Flipside of the coin: Enterprise 6 GHz and Wi-Fi 7 adoption
Above is a graphic published by Wes Purvis of Juniper Networks at the Mobility Field Day 13. In enterprises with 6 GHz-capable access points (and 6 GHz enabled), Juniper is seeing 20-50% client adoption. Even “bring your own device” environments are showing 25-30% 6 GHz on Juniper enterprise networks. Wi-Fi 7 is up to 5-10% adoption.
It is interesting to note, though, that only 50% of 6 GHz-capable Wi-Fi access points actually have 6 GHz radios enabled. The number is increasing rapidly, but is still relatively low today. Not disabling 6 GHz often has to do with transitioning to WPA3 security carefully, and overall, “playing it safe”.
The enterprise adoption of new Wi-Fi generations – and spectrum - is far ahead of consumer adoption. In the coming years, Wi-Fi 4 will gradually disappear, Wi-Fi 5 usage will decline, Wi-Fi 6 will become the standard, and Wi-Fi 7 will start appearing more regularly. The most relevant metric to follow, however, for Wi-Fi quality’s sake, will be the adoption of the 6 GHz spectrum – and what happens with 6 GHz regulation in places like the EU, which haven’t allocated the full 6 GHz for us yet.
Overall, the future for Wi-Fi is bright!
However, over the next few years, the 6 GHz spectrum band will start to see more and more usage, and become crowded as well. Within five years, the 500 MHz of 6 GHz Wi-Fi will start to see some channel interference challenges in crowded locations with lots of neighboring access points and client devices. The countries with the full 1,200MHz allocated will suffer from this less.
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