Last week, Wi-Fi got a new name. For the last two decades, whenever Wi-Fi got an upgrade (often), people had a new set of letters and numbers to deal with. The potential for confusion? High.  Now, each flavor of Wi-Fi will just have one number, so the newest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ax, will be known as Wi-Fi 6. Technology writers everywhere rejoiced. (Seriously, some of the headlines are pretty enthusiastic.)

The technical aspects of Wi-Fi may sometimes be hard to explain, but consumers are increasingly dependent on it. We asked consumers how Wi-Fi factors into their daily lives and what they’re looking forward to. Here is what we learned:

Consumers are crazy about Wi-Fi – both at home and on-the-go: In 2018, we expect and assume that no matter where we go, we can get online. And data tells us that even though “unlimited data” plans for cellular phones are increasingly popular, a majority of our data travels by Wi-Fi. Our recent survey shows that to be the case — we don’t just use Wi-Fi at home or the office, we use it everywhere. Interestingly, after home and work, the most common places for people to use Wi-Fi is at hotels and in the airport, with 49% and 33% respectively.

Wi-Fi is a necessity, not a luxury: In an unenviable game of “would you rather,” we asked people if they’d rather give up cheese or Wi-Fi for the rest of their lives. A majority of people, nearly 60%, picked Wi-Fi over cheese. To put this into context, since 1970 Americans’ per capita cheese consumption has tripled. We LOVE cheese. The fact that the majority of people are still willing to give it up says something about how much we depend on Wi-Fi. These findings should come as no surprise, given that less than a year ago the survey, Mobile Professional Report Diagnoses Widespread Wi-Fi Addiction in 2017, reported that over 60% of people said that Wi-Fi was either “impossible” or “very difficult” to give up.

Social media, shopping, and schoolwork sit atop the list of most common Wi-Fi uses: We asked consumers what they do with Wi-Fi:

– 26% said they spend time buying products and/or services

– 24% of respondents upload videos or photos to social media

– 15% use Wi-Fi do schoolwork or take classes, and

– 11.6% said to look for or apply for a job

Ready for Wi-Fi 6: Testing shows that next generation Wi-Fi will be three times faster and able to handle more devices as well as cover a broader range than the best Wi-Fi available today. The new Wi-Fi standard will support 5G use cases and services we’re all hearing so much about; that’s exciting to consumers, and they’re already thinking about what that means.

People are looking forward to faster speeds, and streaming and sharing without limits. When asked what is most exciting about better Wi-Fi, 38% of people said never again having to worry about cellular data caps again, would be the single most significant benefit of improved next-gen Wi-Fi.