Wi-Fi industry market capitalisation will hit US$800 billion in 2019

Kishore Raja is in no doubt whatsoever that Wi-Fi has a key part to play in 5G. He says there are already more than 8 billion Wi-Fi devices out there in the market, 3 billion of which were released last year alone. Meanwhile, analysts estimate that in 2019 the market capitalisation of the Wi-Fi industry will be at least US$800 billion. Then add to those facts that mobile operators would need to spend at least $25 billion on network developments and enhancements were it collectively to decide not to offload data to Wi-Fi - which they will not do - and you can see how important the technology will continue to be.

To bolster this already pretty unassailable argument, Kishore Raja also points out that that Wi-Fi completely satisfies every one of the key 5G use cases listed in IMT 2020 (International Mobile Telecommunication system), the ITU's vision for 5G and beyond.

Furthermore, as "carrier-grade Wi-Fi" gets ever closer to reality the technology's complementarity with 5G become ever more apparent. As Kishore Raja explains, Wi-Fi is now an integral part of the user experience providing seamless network discovery (users really hate to be locked-in to so-called 'captive portals' that prevent them from going where they really want to go) and the maintaining of a consistent user experience.

Filmed at Wireless Global Congress, London 2018