If Wi-Fi blackouts or dropped connections are a problem in your home, relief is on the way. A little over a year after Wi-Fi 7 made its debut, its successor, Wi-Fi 8, is already confirmed to be in development.
This next-generation Wi-Fi system is designed to improve wireless connections in every corner of the home, quash any downtime when you move between access points, and even extend battery life of your devices.
US technology brand Qualcomm shared an update that confirmed it was working on a follow-up to Wi-Fi 7 and that this new wireless standard wouldn’t be chasing ever-higher speeds, like previous generations.
Instead, Wi-Fi 8 is designed to focus on reliability, improving the overall stability of the wireless connection, cutting latency, and ensuring smoother performance in environments that have several connected devices. That means you’ll experience fewer interruptions and a more consistent connection throughout your home.
Wi-Fi 8 will put reliability first, improving stability, cutting latency, and ensuring smoother performance in environments that have several connected devices.
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With Wi-Fi 8, your devices will maintain connections seamlessly as you move between rooms, which will enable what developers call a “once connected, always connected” experience. You won’t face the annoying drops or delays that currently occur when switching between multiple access points, like those found dotted throughout buildings to enable large public Wi-Fi networks in schools, airports, and other buildings.
These mesh Wi-Fi systems are becoming increasingly common at home too, with the likes of eero and Netgear offering plug-and-play nodes that dramatically expand your Wi-Fi coverage and signal strength throughout the house.
But even without one of these mesh Wi-Fi systems running in the background, Wi-Fi 8 hopes to address any weak signals at the edges of your property. To achieve this, it’ll utilise physical layer enhancements that maintain high-quality connections even in areas where they typically struggle to reach.
Most of us have more devices connected to Wi-Fi than ever before, with everything from doorbells to thermostats, lightbulbs to vacuum cleaners all requiring an internet connection, software updates, and a mobile app.
Wi-Fi 8 has been built from the ground-up to recognise this reality by introducing enhanced coexistence features that prevent disruptions when your phone switches between Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other radios.
Perhaps most excitingly of all, the improved efficiency and smarter power management of Wi-Fi 8 will result in better battery life for the devices connected to your home Wi-Fi network.
That means less time spent charging the devices that you uise all the time on your Wi-Fi network, like your phone or tablet. EE made the same claims around battery life when it introduced its bolstered 5G network.
While development is in the works, the complete Wi-Fi 8 standard won’t be finalised until March 2028
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These improvements are also measurable. For instance, you’ll see at least 25% better performance in weak signal areas, 25% reduction in those frustrating lag spikes, and 25% fewer lost data packets when moving between Wi-Fi access points.
These targets might not sound as impressive as speed claims, but they could make a genuine difference to your daily experience with fewer interruptions and improved reliability.
While development is in the works, the complete Wi-Fi 8 standard won’t be finalised until March 2028, giving Wi-Fi router manufacturers some time to breathe after the recently-released Wi-Fi 7.
This timeline is pretty standard, too. From inception to final approvals, it took developers nearly seven years to complete the development of Wi-Fi 7.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Wi-Fi 7 is designed to deliver faster speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity than Wi-Fi 6, enabling smoother 4K/8K streaming, lag-free gaming, and more reliable connections across multiple devices.
Several companies have recently rolled out Wi-Fi 7-compatible routers since the new release. They include EE, Vodafone, and most recently, Sky.
At the moment, these are reserved for the pricier full-fibre plans, with the fastest download speeds. However, there could be plans to extend this top-tier router to more packages. Many British households haven’t yet upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7, so now may present as the perfect opportunity.
