Another contributing factor is that some Wi-Fi 7 access points have only two radios, whereas Wi-Fi 6 APs generally have three to support 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz bands, Morgan says.
Finally, some vendors offer a wider range of Wi-Fi 7 equipment models than in previous generations. The lower-end models in their portfolios help reduce the average price of all Wi-Fi 7 products, Morgan’s research shows. So, whether you pay a premium for Wi-Fi 7 vs. Wi-Fi 6 or 6E may depend on which models you need.
Act now, these deals won’t last
Whatever your particular case, if you are in the market for a Wi-Fi 7 upgrade, don’t dally. “In the overall wireless LAN market, not just Wi-Fi 7, we’re going to start to see prices rise,” Morgan says. Price hikes will be largely due to the uncertain availability of memory chips required for WLAN hardware – an issue that’s driving price hikes across all sorts of equipment.
“Vendors have already started to raise list prices, even though it’s been in the few percentage points so far,” she said. “We expect further price hikes over the next year.”
Lead times are also volatile. Channel partners are telling Dell’Oro that lead times can vary day-to-day, measured in months one day and weeks the next. “There doesn’t seem to be a consistent trend across specific products or specific vendors. It seems volatile across the whole market,” Morgan says.
As a result, partners are tightening the windows on how long quotes are valid, because they don’t know how or whether their own pricing will change. While there’s no hard-and-fast rule of thumb, and timing may depend on existing contracts, Morgan says the typical window is probably a matter of weeks.
