US$21 Billion Awaits Campus WLAN Vendors. What Should They Do to Capture It?

Demand for campus Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is expanding to address networking complexity and budget cuts. This resource lists segmented campus WLAN revenue forecasts and identifies key action items for WLAN vendors/System Integrators (SIs) to meet customer requirements

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Demand for campus Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is expanding to address networking complexity and budget cuts. This resource lists segmented campus WLAN revenue forecasts and identifies key action items for WLAN vendors/System Integrators (SIs) to meet customer requirements.

Market Overview

The market forecasts below are compiled in ABI Research’s WLAN Infrastructure for Campus Networking market data.

  • Enterprise-grade Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Access Point (AP) revenue will increase from US$8.91 billion in 2023 to nearly US$21 billion by 2030. This equates to a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13%.
  • Currently, the enterprise campus (e.g., traditional office buildings, business estates, etc.) is the biggest revenue driver of WLAN APs (US$10.4 billion in 2024). Education (US$1.3 billion), industrial (US$1.15 billion), and large public venues (US$1 billion) are other significant verticals for campus WLAN APs.
  • Over the course of the forecast period, ABI Research expects the industrial vertical to drive the most WLAN revenue (US$5.14 billion), with enterprise (US$3.87 billion) placing second.
  • The enterprise vertical has the largest Total Addressable Market (TAM) for campus WLAN infrastructure, both in terms of shipments and revenue. This is followed closely by the education vertical in second place. Enterprise and education will retain the top and second positions for total shipments throughout the forecast period, but both will be ultimately surpassed by the industrial vertical toward the end of the period due to the significantly higher Average Selling Price (ASP) of infrastructure engineered for industrial environments.
  • Industrial manufacturing is the vertical with the greatest campus WLAN growth potential by a long margin, with a CAGR of 23.9% forecast between 2023 and 2030 (this contrasts with the next highest CAGR of 14.3%). This growth potential will be gradually released over the forecast period as the latest WLAN innovations enable the technology to serve industrial applications and use cases, which it was previously unable to do. Further spurring the demand will be increasing rates of factory automation and an increased reliance on machinery like Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs).
  • Large public venues will have the second-fastest growth rate for campus WLAN solutions, with a 14.3% CAGR between 2023 and 2030. Businesses that manage sports stadiums, concert halls, and large public spaces seek innovative WLAN technologies to address growing numbers of network users.
  • Both the education and hospitality sectors will hold a 12.4% CAGR throughout the forecast. Organizations within these sectors will require campus WLAN for greater spectrum efficiency, the handling of dense environments, and support for next-generation use cases that require low latency.
  • Regionally, North America and Asia-Pacific hold the most potential for campus WLAN. These two regions will account for between 62% and 65% of the campus WLAN market opportunity throughout the forecast period. A noteworthy trend is Mainland China lagging far behind North America and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. This is due to a lack of access to the unlicensed 6 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum in the country, which goes hand in hand with Wi-Fi 7 WLAN capabilities. Therefore, demand for 6 GHz-enabled WLAN devices will be strikingly lower.

“It is through the latest WLAN innovations that next-generation campus networking can be realized, and that new lucrative revenue streams and service models will be unlocked.” – Andrew Spivey, Senior Analyst at ABI Research

 

Key Decision Items

Look to WLAN Innovations to Meet Campus Demands

If telco equipment vendors and System Integrators (SIs) are to deliver the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that campus networks require, they must look to Wi-Fi 7, 6 GHz spectrum, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and other WLAN innovations. Doing so will unlock new use cases and growth opportunities in a mostly stagnated campus WLAN market. For example, Wi-Fi 7 is the first protocol explicitly designed to harness the performance gains from 6 GHz, which provides expanded capacity. This will support low-latency multi-gigabit connectivity, improved reliability and determinism, reduced congestion, etc. As another example, AI can automate manual processes, identify network patterns, provide conversational-based answers to network administrators’ queries, and more.

Learn more by downloading ABI Research’s free whitepaper, WLAN Innovations For Campus Networks.

Identify the Top Sectors for Campus WLAN

Not every business vertical requires the latest Wi-Fi 7 advancements and the expanded capacity of the 6 GHz spectrum for campus networks. ABI Research identifies the enterprise campus, industrial, education, large public venues, hospitality, and healthcare sectors as prime opportunities for WLAN vendors to target. By 2029, the industrial sector will overtake the enterprise sector as the largest campus WLAN revenue opportunity as manufacturers increasingly require advanced networking solutions to support their digital transformation efforts. In healthcare settings, campus WLAN innovations will enable hospitals to unlock mission-critical applications previously impossible with campus networks.

For an in-depth evaluation of the top campus WLAN vendors, download ABI Research’s WLAN for Campus Area Networks competitive ranking.

Take a Careful Approach to AI-WLAN Integration

As pointed out in the first section, AI is a key technology for WLAN vendors aiming to drive innovation. The potential for AI in campus WLAN is strong, and the hype for the technology is high in general, but this doesn’t mean vendors should rush into AI development. It’s easy to feel compelled to deploy AI just because everyone else does. However, the best course of action is to carefully formulate a plan for AI to naturally complement the business vision. Some key questions WLAN vendors must ask themselves before deploying AI into their campus solutions include:

  • What specific business problems can AI address for campus WLAN? Is AI even the best solution?
  • What is AI enhancement's Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?
  • Is the Return on Investment (ROI) worth AI implementation?
  • How will AI impact company structuring?

WLAN vendors interested in AI deployment should focus on Large Language Models (LLMs) for network management, application monitoring for root cause analysis, AI-driven automated Radio Resource Management (RRM), and digital twins.

More expert insight from ABI Research’s analysts

Enterprise WLAN Vendors Must Reassess Strategies to Benefit from the Next Wave of Campus Network Innovation (IN-7246)

Generative AI Poised to Redefine Wi-Fi Network Management – How Should Industry Players React? (IN-6974)

Understand the Growing Role of the Cloud in Campus WLAN

WLAN vendors report growing interest from campus customers for cloud-based management of their campus networks. Many organizations face Information Technology (IT) budget cuts, making it highly appealing to have a vendor manage their network for them, including installation, maintenance, and updates. Educational institutions, experiencing shrinking IT budgets and increased network complexity, have been the biggest advocates for WLAN cloud migration thus far. Cloud migration brings simplicity, cost reduction, and scalability securely. Our analysts also report that the public sector and hospitality (franchises) have also seen rapid cloud migration in their campus WLAN networks.

WLAN vendors must center upon industry-specific architecture to tap into this cloud-native, controller-free networking trend. Hybrid architecture is also an interesting area to explore as it eliminates single points of failure and promotes more consistent results. It’s important to point out that many campus networks still require on-premises solutions due to bandwidth, latency, architecture, and/or regulatory factors. Therefore, WLAN vendors should not forego on-premises solutions as they work on their cloud-native ambitions.

Key Market Players to Watch

Dig Deeper for the Full Picture

Learn more about the latest campus WLAN innovations and market developments by downloading ABI Research’s Next-Generation WLAN for Campus Networking: Market Opportunities, Challenges, and Business Models report. The report assesses the opportunities that the latest technology integrations present, as well as the WLAN vendor ecosystem. Our analysis empowers WLAN vendors to identify where new revenue streams can be created and how their campus solutions stack up against competitors. Download the report today.

This report is part of the company’s WLAN Infrastructure for Campus Networking Research Spotlight.