2026 WLAN Growth Could Be Hampered by Memory Shortages
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, Cisco’s aggressive Wi-Fi 7 pricing strategy has allowed the company to eke out first place in Indoor AP Wi-Fi 7 revenue share, just ahead of Huawei.
“Cisco’s Wi-Fi 7 adoption has been faster than any of their prior WLAN technology ramps,” said Siân Morgan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “But there is still a long adoption runway ahead and we expect Wi-Fi 7 revenue go keep growing across the market in 2026.”
“We are predicting double-digit growth in WLAN revenue for 2026, but there remains a cloud on the horizon. The AI build-out has caused a shortage in DDR4 memory, required in most modern WLAN Access Points. We expect prices to rise as supply tightens, and if constraints deteriorate further, equipment lead times could grow and prices could escalate.”
Additional highlights from the 4Q 2025 Wireless LAN Quarterly Report:
- Ubiquiti has increased its rank in the list of WLAN market share leaders.
- Public Cloud-managed WLAN revenue outpaced the market, especially in the Large Enterprise & Service Provider segment.
- Financial & Professional services remained the largest vertical in 2025, with spending growing by double digits, fueled by large enterprises.
