Wi-Fi networks in households up 5% to 450 mn, America ranks at 11

The number of households with Wi-Fi networks rose 5 percent to over 450 million, said Strategy Analytics.

The U.S. wireless market has been ranked at 11, well below Netherlands (first), Korea (second), Norway (third), the U.K. (fourth) etc.

The following the ranking of countries with households with Wi-Fi networks

Household Wi-Fi penetration in 2014

The Netherlands, South Korea, and Norway lead the world in terms of the share of households with Wi-Fi networks, due to high fixed-line broadband penetration in these countries.

The United States ranks 11th globally due to slower adoption of Wi-Fi routers and low broadband penetration compared to other developed markets.

China has 108 million Wi-Fi households, the United States 72 million and Japan 30 million.

Global connected devices per household stand at 5.5 in 2014.

Eric Smith, analyst of Connected Home Devices at Strategy Analytics, said: “As Wi-Fi technologies continue to advance, prices fall, and the technology becomes familiar to the average consumer, nearly 80 percent of fixed-line broadband households will have established Wi-Fi networks by 2018.”

Since broadband penetration in developed markets is reaching saturation point many households will begin relying on their mobile data plans and Wi-Fi network adoption will improve.

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