Cisco defines five key elements that will mark the new era of wireless connectivity.
• Overcoming the digital divide. More than 3 billion people lack internet access. This lack of connectivity cuts them off from opportunities for education, employment, and healthcare. With only 29 of the world's 195 countries enjoying affordable internet access,[i] the digital divide disproportionately affects rural areas and low-income communities. The next generation of wireless technologies—including 5G and Wi-Fi 6—will reach areas with limited fiber coverage.
• Wi-Fi 6 and 5G, complementary technologies. The Wi-Fi 6 standard is advancing rapidly. It offers 400% more capacity, improving performance per user. By incorporating 5G-like innovations—such as OFDMA for simultaneous transmission of multiple data channels—it is an ideal complement to 5G, especially in environments like stadiums, airports, trade shows, and hospitals. Furthermore, its improved latency facilitates near real-time operation in Internet of Things applications such as connected factories and autonomous vehicles.
• Digitization of spaces. Location-based services take Wi-Fi beyond connectivity, using anonymous data from the wireless infrastructure to transform it into actionable information. Locating assets, gathering statistics on store visits, and analyzing network performance are widely used applications. Wi-Fi also facilitates a safe return to the office, offering real-time data on room occupancy and usage.
• Open Roaming, a bridge between mobile networks. Open Roaming is a multi-vendor initiative that connects cellular and Wi-Fi networks, facilitating mobile device connection to Wi-Fi and roaming between networks. It allows users and guests to join automatically and securely as soon as their device enters range of a qualified Wi-Fi network, without the need for SSIDs, usernames, or insecure passwords.
• Public access, but more secure. Cisco predicts that by 2023 there will be 628 million public Wi-Fi access points worldwide (169 million in 2018). In Spain, there will be 14.3 million (2.9 million in 2018). Through WPA3, Wi-Fi 6 offers greater security for open networks by encrypting unauthenticated traffic, providing stronger password protection against brute-force attacks, and protecting sensitive data with 192-bit encryption.
According to the Cisco Annual Internet Report, by 2023 there will be 5.3 billion internet users—66% of the world's population—and 29.3 billion connected devices (in Spain there will be 36.5 million internet users and 350 million connected devices). To connect the next 1 billion people, Cisco collaborates with governments on hundreds of initiatives through the CDA program (called Digitaliza in Spain) and on projects such as Google Station and Facebook's Express Wi-Fi.
