Few ISPs Interested in Managed Wi-Fi Have Connected Home Cybersecurity Plan, Says Report

Broadband service providers are committed to providing managed Wi-Fi, but few have a clear strategy for providing cybersecurity and connected home services, reported Maravedis Monday. The managed Wi-Fi market is expected to grow from 40 million households in 2020 to 294 million in 2025, when penetration is forecast to be 29 percent, said the market research firm. Wi-Fi quality of experience is a priority for most ISPs, moving beyond speed to include lower latency for 4K and 8K gaming and virtual reality applications. A few ISPs are attempting to monetize managed Wi-Fi, it said. A top priority for 51 percent of operators is to protect the network from new threats, abuse and unnecessary traffic, it said, coming ahead of protecting customers from new threats and privacy breaches. Other findings showed slow Wi-Fi speed is the leading trigger of service calls (49 percent) followed by unstable Wi-Fi (23 percent). Half of service providers plan to deploy Wi-Fi 6 after 2020, 55 percent want to support the EasyMesh certification program and 36 percent won’t let third parties develop software on top of their home gateway, it said.