The WBA Industry Report 2026: Themes and considerations

The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has published its ‘WBA Industry Report’ for 2026, which details the results of its annual industry survey of the Wi-Fi and cellular ecosystem at enterprise level.

In this article, we examine seven of the key findings, and present action-points for decision-makers in the industry considering their strategy for 2026 and beyond. To read the full report, you can download it from this site [PDF].

1. Wi-Fi is infrastructure, not just connectivity

The report holds Wi-Fi as important digital infrastructure underpinning enterprise operations, public services, and most aspects of consumer life. Users expect Wi-Fi to deliver reliable, deterministic performance, with predictable latency.

The industry’s push into Wi-Fi 7 and the planned roadmap to Wi-Fi are a response. Wi-Fi 8’s focus on reliability and multi-AP coordination offers an alternative to wired Ethernet or private cellular. That can mean that certain decisions made by default in the past (which technologies are best-suited to industrial settings, for example) could be challenged. That will be particularly true in industrial automation – as mentioned – and likely, healthcare, plus any setting that requires real-time analytics to be performant. There are implications on what might come to be defined as ‘edge’ as wi-fi becomes a replacement and gives companies more leeway in their choices for physical compute placements in support of IIoT.

Wi-Fi investment decisions are long-term infrastructure choices. Network refresh cycles should explicitly factor in reliability metrics, not just throughput, and CIOs should begin to evaluate Wi-Fi 8 in parallel with Wi-Fi 7. Environments supporting robotics, XR, or time-sensitive operations will have new-generation wi-fi among their viable options.

2. Accelerating adoption of Wi-Fi 7/8 and the 6 GHz band

The report shows rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 7 in enterprise and consumer markets, driven by demand (higher throughput, lower latency, spectrum efficiency). The 6 GHz band could alleviate network congestion and allow new applications to run on Wi-Fi, with chipset and access point shipments continuing to grow.

As Wi-Fi’s 7 and 8 reach production-readiness, enterprises will experience asymmetry between legacy and modern infrastructure in performance. Current regulatory delays in Standard Power 6 GHz and Automated Frequency Coordination could create uneven deployment conditions globally, affecting multinational networks.

In these instances, spectrum-aware network design will be necessary, including the possible need to plan tri-band architectures (where available) and the Report urges the keeping on top of regulatory developments around the world. Under-investment could lead to capacity bottlenecks, it says, as Wi-Fi 7 devices proliferate more.

3. Convergence of Wi-Fi, 5G, and satellite networks

The WBA’s Report notes ‘convergence, not competition’ between Wi-Fi, 5G, and non-terrestrial networks. It paints the relationship as Wi-Fi handling high-capacity local access, 5G providing mobility and reliability, and satellite extending coverage to under-served environments.

The expansion of satellite backhaul and direct-to-device services will change many aspects of the economics of connectivity, particularly in transport, rural broadband provision, and disaster recovery. The organisation sees a blurring between established operators’ remits as neutral host models and private network providers during any convergence.

Technology-agnosticism will therefore be instrumental to healthy business in the sector. It’s important for enterprises in the industry to focus on use-case fit not current specialisation, and calls for an increasing disregard for established vendor choices or access type. It sees the emergence of hybrid architectures that will combine Wi-Fi, private cellular, and satellite backhaul, particularly for WAN and MAN (metropolitan area networks) campuses, logistics hubs, and similar.

4. OpenRoaming for secure access

The report positions OpenRoaming as an important element of next-generation end-users’ Wi-Fi. Challenges exist around authentication, roaming, privacy, and monetisation methods, however. OpenRoaming’s adoption by cities and venues has demonstrated its scalability and given it relevance beyond niche deployments.

Identity’s centrality in network access means OpenRoaming will integrate further with cellular identity frameworks, and it calls for unified authentication architectures across Wi-Fi and mobile networks. Convergence into unified identity verification will help strengthen security and compliance.

Enterprises should view OpenRoaming as an enhancement that could enable new business models. There is space in the market for carrier offload and analytics services, it says, and early adopters could monetise effectively.

5. AI in wireless networking

Artificial intelligence is presented as a foundational enabler, not an enhancement. The WBA predicts radio resource management, self-healing networks, and predictive maintenance as among the technology’s uses. It claims AI is embedded increasingly in Wi-Fi operations.

Any progression toward agentic/autonomous AI could increase operational efficiency, but regardless of success, its use will raise governance and trust challenges. AI needs high-capacity, low-latency Wi-Fi infrastructure.

The Report calls for network modernisation plans to be part of larger AI strategy. It cites the need for investment in observability to ensure data quality at all data layers, and reiterates the now-common trope for human oversight of more autonomous AI systems.

6. Wi-Fi in industry: IoT, sensing, devices, and attenuation

The report states Wi-Fi has expanded beyond its traditional bounds, and is used increasingly in industrial IoT. It cites technologies such as Wi-Fi HaLow and Wi-Fi Sensing as suitable for applications in smart cities, healthcare, manufacturing, and residential environments.

Wi-Fi-based IoT solutions can reduce deployment costs compared to specialised alternatives, the Report states. This makes access to advanced sensing and analytics easier for a wider range of technology, but such solutions will increase the pressure on network security.

Strategy options should include Wi-Fi-based IoT, with consideration given due weight to security frameworks, device management policies, and wider data governance models.

7. Security, privacy, trust

Security and privacy emerge as important concerns in the WBA’s Industry Report. It touches on MAC randomisation, identity management systems, and the ever-present need for regulatory compliance as some of the issues that will shape network design. The report details some technical standards and frameworks that could address specific challenges.

Network convergence and the use of multiple technologies increase an organisation’s attack surface to bad actors. Trust frameworks like OpenRoaming and zero-trust architectures will help protect networks, and their provision could differentiate competing service providers’ offerings.

Security embedded by design is relevant for next-generation networks, and legacy systems will need retrofitting to keep in line. Standards-based solutions, continuous monitoring, and identity-centric security models will help maintain resilience and compliance, the Report states.

(Image source: ““軍用與民用電信形之別 Contrast of Telecommunication Forms: Military vs Civil” / USS Peleliu (LHA-5) in Hong Kong / SML.20130418.6D.01910.BW” by See-ming Lee (SML) is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.)

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Tags: agentic ai, convergence, cybersecurity, governance, satellite, wi-fi 7, wi-fi 8