WLAN Revenues Turn the Corner on a Disastrous Year
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – March 11, 2025 – According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, enterprise class Wireless LAN (WLAN) revenues continued on a recovery trajectory, growing 7 percent on a Y/Y basis. The adoption of Wi-Fi 7 jumped by 5 points to 11 percent of Indoor Access Points; Huawei, HPE, and H3C gained share of Wi-Fi 7 revenues in 4Q 2024.
“The contraction in the 2024 WLAN market was the worst we have seen in over 20 years,” said Siân Morgan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “It was even steeper than the dip during the economic crisis of 2009. However, the reverberations from the COVID-19 pandemic are dampening, and we are expecting double-digit growth in 2025.
“The refresh to Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 is driving the current growth. Huawei and H3C dominated the early Wi-Fi 7 market, but in 4Q 2024 we recognized enterprise-class Wi-Fi 7 sales from over 11 vendors. We are expecting the rapid adoption of Wi-Fi 7 to continue into 2025,” continued Morgan.
Additional highlights from the 4Q 2024 Wireless LAN Quarterly Report:
- CommScope, HPE, and Ubiquiti recognized double-digit growth Y/Y in WLAN revenues.
- WLAN shipments to China and Middle East and Africa contracted, dragging worldwide shipments to below the 4Q 2023 level.
- Huawei remained the forerunner in Wi-Fi 7 shipments; however, with Cisco expected to begin selling Wi-Fi 7 APs in early 2025, the position of Wi-Fi 7 leader will be in contention.
- The US Department of Justice has filed a suit against HPE, aiming to block HPE’s intended acquisition of Juniper. The suit’s central argument—that the WLAN market is too concentrated—is creating uncertainty in the outlook for the Public Cloud-Managed WLAN market.
The Dell’Oro Group Wireless LAN Quarterly Report offers complete, in-depth coverage of the Enterprise Outdoor and Indoor markets, Wireless LAN Controllers and Licenses, with tables containing manufacturers’ revenue, average selling prices, and unit shipments by the following wireless standards: 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7), 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6 and 6E [6 GHz]), 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) Wave 1 vs. Wave 2, 802.11n, and historic IEEE 802.11 standards. The Enterprise market is portrayed by Public Cloud vs. Premises and Private Cloud deployments, by geographic region, as well as by ten Vertical markets. To purchase these reports, please contact us by email at dgsales@delloro.com.
Dell’Oro Group is a market research firm that specializes in strategic competitive analysis in the telecommunications, security, enterprise networks, and data center infrastructure markets. Our firm provides in-depth quantitative data and qualitative analysis to facilitate critical, fact-based business decisions. For more information, contact Dell’Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.delloro.com.
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