U.S. Ranks 11th in Wi-Fi Household Penetration, Report Says

Not quite six of 10 U.S. homes have Wi-Fi, and that puts the country in 11th place among major industrialized countries in terms of household Wi-Fi penetration, Strategy Analytics said in a report Wednesday. The firm puts the blame for the low U.S. ranking on slower adoption of Wi-Fi routers, though the U.S., in terms of number of Wi-Fi homes, ranks second only to China (72 million vs. 108 million), it said. The Netherlands is the top market for Wi-Fi penetration at 80.4 percent, followed by South Korea (76.4 percent), Norway (76.2 percent) and the U.K. (72.1 percent), it said. High fixed-line broadband penetration in those countries is the reason they lead, it said. "Contrary to common perception, not all consumers have embraced Wi-Fi networks in their homes despite the fact that global connected devices per household stand at 5.5 in 2014," the company said. "Wi-Fi router adoption in fixed-line broadband households still has much room to grow globally. As Wi-Fi technologies continue to advance, prices fall, and the technology becomes more familiar to the average consumer, nearly 80 percent of fixed-line broadband households will have established Wi-Fi networks by 2018."