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ZDNET's key takeaways
Wi-Fi 7 is finally becoming popular.
With that trend, overall internet speeds are picking up.
You can now buy Wi-Fi 7 routers for reasonable prices.
I love Wi-Fi 7. It's fast enough to keep up with my AT&T Fiber 2 Gbps internet connection, and when deployed with my Netgear Orbi 970 mesh network, it can cover my 5,000-square-foot home/office even with its thick plaster walls. However, in the two years since Wi-Fi 7's commercial launch, not many people joined me. For all Wi-Fi 7's virtues, Wi-Fi 7 gear was also relatively uncommon and expensive. Now, things are finally changing.
Also: We tested 15 Wi-Fi 7 routers in our lab - this one had the best coverage
According to Ookla's latest Speedtest data, Wi-Fi 7 traffic in the US quadrupled year over year between Q1 2025 and Q2 2026. In practice, that means 7.2% of Wi-Fi routers today are deployed with Wi-Fi 7. That proportion is a sharp jump from just 1.8% in Q1 2025 and "below 1%" during 2024, when operators were only starting to seed the market with Wi-Fi 7 gateways.
Spectrum leads the way in Wi-Fi-7 adoption. Ookla
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