Takeaways from Wi-Fi World Congress '25

Usually, I leave these events with way too much to note about presentation content. This time is different. While some presentations piqued my interest, this experience was overwhelmingly about connecting with others. Inherently, this is a business focused conference. When it comes to putting AI agents in customer premises equipment or monetizing traffic with ads, I have much less to say. That said, I directed my attention to meeting the plethora of talented individuals in attendance and learning from them.

This year's event had three days:

• Day 1 was focused on masterclasses on wireless design and Wi-Fi 7

• Day 2 consisted of presentations for consumer Wi-Fi markets

• Day 3 consisted of presentations for enterprise Wi-Fi markets

The Venue

This year's conference was held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. The building itself was the former Silicon Graphics office. The museum deserves an afternoon on its own. It has everything from vacuum tube computers to modern day gaming. My favorite item was this World of Warcraft server in their special rotating exhibits. This game is half the reason I went into tech and also the reason why I didn't study sometimes.

World of Warcraft Server blade

It was interesting seeing what peoples' perception of future technology was in the past. Examples include robot assistants and Nike shoes with chips for tracking fitness data. I encourage anyone with time near Mountain View to visit.

Highlights

This year's events had some of the most interesting evening events I've ever seen at a conference. The first night had the four authors of Wi-Fi 7 In Depth for a book signing. It was nice getting to meet those that put so much time into helping the greater Wi-Fi community.

Authors Jerome Henry , Brian Hart, Binita Gupta, and Malcolm Smith with Claus Hetting of WiFi Now

There was also a Hall of Fame induction for Greg Ennis and Dorothy Stanley. Both of them have contributed their entire careers to this industry. Hearing about how neither of them weren't sure how Wi-Fi would turn out as a brand or technology was fascinating. We take for granted sometimes that it's as ubiquitous and functional as it is today.

Eric McLaughlin, Dorothy Stanley, Greg Ennis and Claus Hetting

One presentation I particularly enjoyed was from Pavlov Media. He discussed challenges with deploying Wi-Fi at colleges during COVID. They couldn't wait for their original vendor order, so instead they offered their customers an OpenWiFi AP solution. For their needs, it did everything needed, shipped faster, and costed less. Stories like these remind me how the low-mid range AP market gets left behind in favor of the shiny-new thing often times. He also discussed how they achieved their high net promoter score by prioritizing user experience.

Pavlov Media takes the stage

Another presentation I really enjoyed was from QuantalRF. They are a startup addressing some of the physical challenges with Wi-Fi chipsets. Their CEO, Dr. Ali Fard, made the argument that so much attention has been made to the data-layer that optimizations that the physical layer thermals and energy output have been left behind. The specifics behind are a bit outside my realm of understanding, but you can read more here.

The ??? I'm not sure how I feel about this

One panel brought up the topic of whether 6 GHz was required for Wi-Fi 7 . Some vendors have opted to make APs without a 6 GHz radio because many regions such as China still not have approved its use. There was a split between two camps of thought:

-Why would I make my customer spend more money for no reason?

-What's the point of Wi-Fi 7 without using 6 GHz? There is some nuance here. We would still require clients to use WPA3 and some lab testing has shown that Wi-Fi 7 clients still have latency improvements. However, the major benefits to data rates and client experience are not felt without 6 GHz.

Sometimes the market pulls the industry in strange ways, but I hope this is only temporary until 6 GHz adoption is more realized globally. Otherwise, the industry could fragment in ways that would be less ideal for Wi-Fi adoption. I suppose there isn't much to do about regulatory domains not approving 6 GHz, but the least we could do is advocate for that. Consistent implementation that just works was part of what made the Wi-Fi brand so popular. I would hate to lose that for short-sighted gains.

Discussion on whether 6 GHz is a requirement for Wi-Fi 7 heated up.

Aside from that, there were presentations about putting AI in everything of course. Without firing specific shots, that included home routers. This AI presence probably is meant for intelligent traffic routing or content delivery for a better experience, but the options are limitless.

Some companies such as Roku have decided to use these newly found powers for contextual advertising. Like imagine you're watching Sopranos and you get an ad recommendation for your local deli inside the episode because Tony bought gabagool at Satriale's. Look, I guess this is our New World Order, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Who doesn't like a good cold sub?

Overall it was great catching up with the greater community and I also learned a lot about the business and regulatory side of the industry. I definitely left with many paths to go down for side-projects. That said, I have mixed feelings about the future of Wi-Fi in relation to AI and fragmentation amongst device implementations. However, I'm still optimistic because we came a long way to get here in the first place.