Wi-Fi 7 adoption in the US quadrupled in a year - is it time to upgrade?
Wi‑Fi 7 is rapidly moving out of the lab and into American living rooms, with data from Ookla showing US usage is growing fast.
Between Q1 2025 and Q2 2026, Wi-Fi 7 traffic in the US has quadrupled, with 7.2% of Wi-Fi routers now utilizing Wi-Fi 7 technology. This is a significant increase from just 1.8% in Q1 2025 and less than 1% in 2024. The growth is primarily driven by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) supplying equipment to their customers rather than individuals purchasing their own Wi-Fi 7 routers.
Major cable internet providers, such as Charter's Spectrum and Comcast's Xfinity, have leading roles in this expansion, accounting for 24.9% and 12.4% of US Wi-Fi 7 usage respectively in Q1 2026. Fiber ISPs like CenturyLink and Frontier also show substantial Wi-Fi 7 penetration, at 14.7% and 14.3% respectively, which is roughly double the national average.
The shift to the 6 GHz band is also a contributing factor, with US 6 GHz Wi-Fi usage jumping 62% year-over-year and now making up 13.8% of all American Wi-Fi Speedtest samples. While Wi-Fi 7 is still in its early adoption phase, with over 90% of US Wi-Fi users still on Wi-Fi 6/6E or earlier generations, the trajectory is clear. As high-speed internet becomes increasingly important, it may be time for users to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 for improved performance.
Written by urgent.news from ZDNet's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
