Company driving adoption of next-generation Wi-Fi in South Africa
TP-Link, one of South Africa’s largest providers of Wi-Fi and networking solutions, said it planned to drive local adoption of next-generation connectivity with the recent launch of its Wi-Fi 7 products.
Dalen Peng, TP-Link country manager, told MyBroadband that the firm is already making strong progress in driving early adoption of the advanced Internet technology in South Africa.
“We are driving the adoption of next-generation connectivity, particularly through the rollout of Wi-Fi 7 products,” he said.
“As bandwidth demands continue to grow in South Africa, we are focused on ensuring users can benefit from faster speeds, lower latency, and improved network efficiency.”
He said that TP-Link continued to enjoy strong positions in the local home networking and smart home segments. Its small and medium business solutions were also on the rise.
Peng explained that the company is not focused solely on building market share but rather on sustainable growth with efforts to strengthen channel partnerships and consistent product availability.
For 2026, TP-Link’s strategy for the local market is driven by three pillars, the first of which is expanding its ecosystem offerings across home networking, smart home and its Omada business solutions.
“The goal is to provide customers with fully integrated, seamless connectivity experiences across both consumer and business environments,” said Peng.
Deepening channel partnerships is the second. TP-Link is investing in partner enablement initiatives to support this, including technical training and product education for resellers and distributors.
The third pillar is the rollout of Wi-Fi 7 and its adoption across South Africa. This latest generation of Wi-Fi technology shifted from ultra-fast speeds to extremely low latency.
“Wi-Fi 7, officially known as 802.11be, isn’t just a small speed bump… It’s like upgrading from a dusty farm road to a multi-lane highway,” said TP-Link distributor Evetech.
“Wi-Fi 7 doubles the channel width of Wi-Fi 6. Think of it as doubling the number of lanes on that digital highway, allowing for a massive increase in data throughput.”
The next generation of Wi-Fi technology
For South Africans, a Wi-Fi 7-capable router means family homes where multiple devices are connected to the Internet no longer have to deal with latency from overburdened connections.
In 2025, MyBroadband independently tested a Wi-Fi 7 router and found that it had a max bandwidth of 320MHz, double the maximum for Wi-Fi 6e routers, with a theoretical max data rate of 23,059 Mbps.
TP-Link unveiled its first Wi-Fi 7 routers globally in 2022 with the TP-Link Archer BE900. In October last year, the company announced that it had demonstrated its first Wi-Fi 8 connection.
“This technology is poised to deliver the ultra-reliable wireless performance that the industry will require as more devices and bandwidth-intensive applications come online,” it said.
Meanwhile, TP-Link’s Wi-Fi 7 routers had to overcome regulatory hurdles before being allowed to operate at 6GHz, as South Africa’s communication regulator needed to certify the frequency locally first.
TP-Link launched its Wi-Fi 7-capable routers locally in late 2023, but the ecosystem was only fully established and capable of meeting advertised standards in 2025.
As the company navigated the adoption of its latest generation of routers and networking technology, Peng said TP-Link was monitoring the global memory supply situation.
In South Africa, major manufacturers, retailers, and distributors told MyBroadband that the memory supply shortage is significantly affecting technology prices.
Acer South Africa’s country manager, Glenn du Toit, said he began seeing upward price pressure in mid-2025. Du Toit indicated that the worst impacts on the market will only affect consumers after April 2026.
Evetech said that it had seen DDR5 RAM prices in South Africa increase by 180% to 220% since the fourth quarter of 2025.
Peng said that TP-Link managed to mitigate much of the potential price volatility of its products in South Africa, thanks to its global scale and supply chain management.
TP-Link said its global scale and strong supply chain management, supported by long-term partnerships with key component suppliers, helped mitigate much of the potential volatility.
“In the South African market, while there have been some cost pressures, we have worked to maintain pricing stability for both our partners and end-users,” he said.
“Through operational efficiencies and strategic planning, we have been able to absorb a portion of these increases, ensuring we remain competitive in the market.”
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