The LiFi market landscape is driven by several major trends

The risks of a spectrum crunch

Existing bandwidth to support growth in internet usage is running out

More than 66% of all the people on Earth now use the internet, with the latest data putting the global user total at 5.35 billion. Internet users have grown by 1.8% over the past 12 months, thanks to 97 million new users since the start of 2023 (Digital 2024 Global Overview Report, DATAREPORTAL with We Are Social and Meltwater).
The average total volume of internet traffic across all networks worldwide is nearly 33 EB, equivalent to 264 million terabits, of data per day (The Global Internet Phenomena Report March 2024, Sandvine).
Streaming video dominates overall internet traffic, accounting for more than 80% of it (The Global Internet Phenomena Report March 2024, Sandvine).
Every minute of the day Netflix subscribers stream 362,962 hours, there are 3,472,222 YouTube video views, 138.9m reels are played on Facebook and Instagram, TikTok users upload 16,000 videos and Snapchat users send 3.3m snaps (Data Never Sleeps 12.0, 2024, DOMO).
Wi-Fi and mobile communications both operate within the radio frequency (RF) spectrum, part of the electro-magnetic spectrum, and this has a limited capacity that will eventually be overwhelmed by the growth in traffic already occurring.

Growth in the use of LED lighting

Solid State lighting is becoming the norm

The global LED lighting market size was valued at USD 109.11 billion in 2025 and is projected to grow from USD 123.24 billion in 2026 to USD 336.90 billion by 2034, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.40% during the forecast period (LED Lighting Market, Fortune Business Insights, 2026).
Solid state lighting enables intelligent lighting, and the global lighting control system market size, which was estimated at USD 32,929.5 million in 2023, is projected to reach USD 76,690.8 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 11.8% from 2024 to 2030 (LED Lighting Market, Fortune Business Insights, 2026).
Market growth is driven by rising demand for energy-efficient lighting, government incentives, AI integration, and adoption in sectors such as automotive and consumer electronics (LED Lighting Market, Fortune Business Insights, 2026).
2022 saw continued progress both in the deployment of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and in lighting efficiency. Many countries are now beginning to eliminate fluorescent lighting to make LEDs the dominant lighting technology. About 50% of global residential lighting sales use LED technology (International Energy Agency, 2023).
LED lighting is being increasingly deployed in automotive and street lighting, as well as in domestic, retail and industrial contexts.

The need for green technology solutions

Low power, low carbon, green networking solutions are essential

The information and communications technologies (ICT) sector drives economic growth, enables digital transformation, fosters innovation and promotes global collaboration and connectivity. But these benefits come at a cost: ICT’s share of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ranged between 1.8 to 2.8% in 2020 (More emissions than meet the eye: Decarbonizing the ICT sector, July 2023 Allianz).
A new International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard highlights that compliance with the Paris Agreement will require the ICT industry to reduce GHG emissions by 45% from 2020 to 2030 (ITU, February 2020).
By 2028, 5G networks are expected to achieve widespread adoption in consumer and enterprise ecosystems, resulting in a huge increase in energy consumption and eventual replacement of legacy long-term evolution (LTE) networks (DATACENTER FORUM, December 2021).
The number of unique mobile phone users sits at 5.61 billion at the start of 2024. The latest data from GSMA Intelligence reveals that 69.4% of the world’s total population now uses a mobile device, with the global total up by 138 million (+2.5%) since early 2023 (Digital 2024 Global Overview Report, DATAREPORTAL with We Are Social and Meltwater).
The vast majority of connectivity occurs indoors where a combination of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Wi-Fi is both the most cost-effective and sustainable solution. In fact, at 31 July 2023, FTTH networks are 2.5x more energy efficient per megabyte transmitted than 5G (Sustainability Benefits of 6 GHz Spectrum Policy, Study for Wi-Fi Alliance by WIK Consult, July 2023).

Continuing concerns over cyber security

Radio frequency signals can be readily intercepted

The global eCommerce market has shown impressive growth over the last years and is expected to reach US$5 trillion in 2024, having grown by an annual 15% since 2019 (State of Digital Retail 2024, ECDB).
Global security spending is expected to grow by 12.2% year on year in 2025 (Worldwide Security Spending Guide, IDC, March 2025).
Cybercrime costs in the UK were estimated at 61.52 billion US dollars in 2025. This trend will continue in the upcoming years, with the cost expected to reach 128.8 billion US dollars in 2030 (Statista Research Department).
New research published by the government suggests that the average cost of a significant cyberattack for businesses in the UK could be as high as £195,000. When looked at on a national level, the annual cost to the UK economy could be £14.7bn or 0.5% of the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) according to a government-commissioned report from KPMG (PublicTechnology.net, November).
Critical National Infrastructures can be more robust if access points leak less signal.

Expansion of the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionising all aspects of the modern world

The UK IoT market size reached USD 33.7251 billion in 2024. Looking forward, IMARC Group expects the market to reach USD 183.8585 billion by 2033, exhibiting a CAGR of 20.74% during 2025-2033 (UK IoT Market Report by Component, Application and Region 2025-2033, IMARC Group).
The Internet of Things (IoT) market is experiencing significant growth, driven by advancements in machine learning, wireless communication, and sensor fusion. (UK IoT Market Size 2025-2029, Technavio, 2025).
IoT systems link together things that have never been digitally connected before, including services, machines, businesses and individuals, creating continuous, automatic data flows between them.
The world is generating 181 zettabytes of data, an increase of 23.13% year-on-year, with 2.5 quintillion bytes created daily. That’s 29 terabytes every second, or 2.5 million terabytes per day (Demandsage, December 2025). This data needs to be accessible to end-users.
One of the enabling components is wireless connectivity, and LiFi will allow high bandwidth wireless connections to be easily made.

LiFi offers immediate benefits towards each of the above trends

The visible light spectrum is plentiful, free and unlicensed, mitigating the RF spectrum crunch effect.
The wide use of solid state lighting offers an opportunity for efficient dual use lighting and communication systems.
LiFi is more power efficient than radio technologies.
LiFi signals are less prone to leakage beyond their intended environment so offer increased security.
LiFi will enable many more “Things” to be connected to the Internet, diversifying and increasing the number of available applications.