Redwood City – – September 17, 2026 -- Vendors shipped a record volume of Access Points in the second quarter of 2026, pushing the global WLAN market to double-digit growth across every region, according to Dell'Oro Group's newly published Wireless LAN Quarterly Report.
Wi-Fi 7 captures more than half of second-quarter WLAN sales
Wi-Fi 7 equipment accounted for over 50% of the market in 2Q26, and Dell'Oro Group expects adoption of the standard to keep rising through 2028. Senior Director Siân Morgan said the first Wi-Fi 8 revenue could appear as early as next year, but that Wi-Fi 7 will remain the dominant purchase for enterprise buyers in the interim.
Enterprises front-load orders ahead of anticipated price increases
Average selling prices rose only moderately even as unit shipments surged, a pattern Morgan attributed to enterprises accelerating purchases before costs climb further. Dell'Oro Group forecasts ASPs will rise throughout the remainder of 2026 as memory component prices increase amid the broader AI infrastructure build-out.
Unresolved memory shortage to keep lead times variable
The ongoing shortage of memory components has not been resolved, and Dell'Oro Group expects continued price increases alongside variable equipment lead times in what it describes as a supply-driven market. Despite the constraints, vendors shipped the highest number of access points with multi-gig and 10 Gbps interfaces on record in the quarter.
Europe posts the strongest regional growth
The WLAN market expanded by double digits in every geographic region tracked, with Europe recording the highest growth rate of the quarter. Outdoor AP revenue has now outpaced the broader market in seven of the last eight quarters, underscoring sustained enterprise investment in outdoor wireless coverage.