More than 90% of enterprises purchasing Wi-Fi 6E access points will realize no calculable return on investment until at least 2024, according to Gartner’s latest "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure."

The analyst firm claims disruptive network technologies focused on application performance and end-user experience are driving innovation in the enterprise networking market, with Wi-Fi 6 being the most “visible of the connection-oriented technologies.”

“A lot of customers will come to us and ask about things like Wi-Fi 6E,” Analyst Tim Zimmerman told SDxCentral. “And we are concerned about that, largely because the applications don't support the requirements for 802.11 ax.”

Wi-Fi 6E is the evolution of the Wi-Fi 6 standard that was introduced in 2019. Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) operates at 2.4 and 5 GHz, while Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax 6 GHz) is still a draft standard and operates in the less crowded 6 GHz spectrum.

Despite growing enterprise investment in Wi-Fi 6E infrastructure, most end-user devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones are still limited to 802.11ac and 802.11ax, and cannot use the 6 GHz spectrum quite yet.

Gartner said a reliance on diverse suites of technologies to support digital business has drawn significant importance to understanding application performance, user experience requirements, and security postures across the entire network fabric.

“This realignment to business outcomes and away from traditional network connectivity has exposed the significant impact of the historic propensity to accumulate technical debt in enterprise networking,” the firm added.

The Magic Quadrant notes that as many organizations are approaching the “end-of-support” period of their network equipment life cycles, there is increased pressure on the networking market. Gartner claims network equipment vendors are “not currently extending the end of support dates despite the inability to deliver new equipment, which has left enterprises scrambling for alternative offerings to the issue.”

Zimmerman said he does expect that the 6 GHz spectrum will become “more of a capable spectrum” in the next several years, when the 802.11 generation is ratified as part of the IEEE standard.

However, he has yet to secure a “commitment from any vendor to move from a Wi-Fi 6E to a standards-based implementation within the 6 GHz space,” which has led to customers investing in Wi-Fi 6E before it’s actually usable.

“They want you to pay a premium for something that still is not standardized, and doesn't have the devices in it right now,” Zimmerman added.