In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Benjamin Liu, General Manager of TP Link Canada, shares insights into the technologies shaping the future of connectivity for Canadian households and businesses. As digital lifestyles become more demanding and organizations rely on an increasing number of connected devices, Benjamin discusses how networking technology is evolving to deliver greater reliability, simplicity, and performance in everyday environments.
Interview By Kripa Anand
Benjamin Liu is the General Manager of TP-Link Canada Inc., responsible for leading the company’s growth, market strategy, and business operations across Canada. With more than a decade of leadership experience in the ICT industry across Asia and North America, he has helped organizations accelerate growth through innovation, strategic partnerships, and customer-focused execution.
He is passionate about advancing networking and smart home technologies and helping Canadian households and businesses benefit from faster, more reliable, and more secure connectivity. He is committed to bringing next-generation Wi-Fi, smart home, networking, and surveillance solutions to the Canadian market, enabling consumers and businesses to stay connected in an increasingly digital world.
TP‑Link just announced Archer 8, your first Wi‑Fi 8 router platform. For Canadian households and small businesses, what will they actually notice day-to-day with Wi‑Fi 8 compared to today’s best-in-class Wi‑Fi 7?
Wi-Fi 7 delivered a major leap in speed and capacity, and for many Canadians it remains an excellent solution. With Wi-Fi 8, however, the focus shifts from achieving higher peak speeds to delivering a more reliable experience in real-world environments.
For Canadian households and small businesses, the biggest difference will be consistency. Users are less likely to experience slowdowns when multiple devices are connected, interruptions while moving throughout a home or office, or latency spikes during video calls, gaming sessions, and streaming. Wi-Fi 8 is designed to help networks perform more predictably, even in dense environments where interference, congestion, and signal obstacles are common.
In practical terms, that means smoother virtual meetings, more responsive online gaming, more reliable smart home performance, and stronger connectivity across larger or multi-floor spaces. For small businesses, it can translate into better support for connected devices, cloud applications, and hybrid work environments without compromising network stability.
The reality is that most people don’t sit around measuring Wi-Fi speeds, they notice when their connection isn’t working. Wi-Fi 8 is being built to reduce those everyday frustrations and deliver a more dependable experience, which is ultimately what users value most.
You’ve emphasized “real-world reliability” over peak lab speeds with Archer 8. What kinds of problems in Canadian homes—like multi‑floor coverage, device congestion, and latency during calls or gaming—were you specifically designing this new platform to solve?
When we speak with Canadian consumers, the challenges they describe are rarely about not having enough theoretical speed. They’re dealing with dropped video calls, lag during online gaming, inconsistent coverage between floors, and dozens of connected devices all competing for bandwidth at the same time.
Archer 8 was designed to address those real-world conditions. Canadian homes are increasingly complex environments, with remote work, streaming, gaming, smart home devices, and security systems all running simultaneously. Add in physical barriers like walls, floors, and interference from neighbouring networks, and maintaining a consistent connection becomes much more important than achieving peak speed in a lab.
With Wi-Fi 8, we’re focused on improving reliability, reducing latency, and helping networks perform more consistently under heavy load. The goal is to deliver smoother video calls, more responsive gaming, better roaming throughout the home, and stronger performance when many devices are connected at once.
Ultimately, Canadians don’t measure their Wi-Fi experience by a speed test result, they measure it by whether everything works when they need it. Archer 8 was engineered to provide that dependable, always-on connectivity that modern households increasingly rely on every day.
Beyond routers, TP‑Link is building an end‑to‑end ecosystem with Deco, Roam, Omada, VIGI, Aginet, and the Tapo smart home lineup. How do you see these pieces working together to support a fully connected home or small business in Canada over the next few years?
Connectivity today extends far beyond the router. Whether it’s a home, home office, small business, or multi-site operation, people are looking for technology that works together seamlessly and can grow with their needs.
That’s where TP-Link’s broader ecosystem comes in. Deco and Roam help deliver reliable whole-home and whole-property connectivity, while Tapo brings smart home devices such as cameras, sensors, doorbells, and automation into a unified experience. For small businesses, Omada provides enterprise-grade networking and centralized management, while VIGI adds professional surveillance and security capabilities. Aginet helps service providers deliver stronger, more reliable broadband experiences to customers.
What makes this approach valuable is that each solution addresses a specific need, but together they create a connected ecosystem built around reliability, simplicity, and scalability. A Canadian homeowner may start with a router and a few smart devices, then expand into whole-home Wi-Fi, security monitoring, and automation over time. Similarly, a small business can build a network, security, and surveillance infrastructure that grows alongside the organization.
Over the next few years, we expect Canadians to increasingly adopt integrated ecosystems rather than standalone products, making connectivity, security, and smart technology easier to manage through a more unified experience.
Smart homes are becoming more complex, with security cameras, sensors, automation, and voice assistants all competing for bandwidth. How are you seeing Canadian consumers actually use the Tapo ecosystem today—and what do you think the “connected home of tomorrow” looks like in practical terms?
What we’re seeing in Canada is that smart homes are becoming true ecosystems rather than collections of individual devices. Consumers are increasingly connecting security cameras, doorbells, sensors, smart lighting, and automation routines to work together. For example, a Tapo camera or doorbell can trigger lights, send notifications, and provide live video access through a single app experience.
At the same time, Canadians are prioritizing simplicity and reliability. They don’t want to manage multiple platforms or worry about devices competing for bandwidth—they want technology that works seamlessly in the background.
Looking ahead, the connected home of tomorrow will be defined less by the number of devices and more by intelligent automation. Devices will communicate with each other, respond in real time, and help homeowners manage security, comfort, and energy use with minimal effort. A home may automatically adjust lighting, climate controls, and security settings based on occupancy, schedules, or environmental conditions.
For TP-Link, the foundation of that experience is reliable connectivity. As more devices come online, strong networking and seamless integration become increasingly important. Our goal is to make smart home technology simple, dependable, and accessible, so homeowners can focus on the benefits rather than the technology itself.
Looking ahead to the broader Wi‑Fi 8 portfolio—Deco 8 mesh, Roam 8 travel solutions, and new adapters—what advice would you give Canadian consumers and SMBs planning their next networking upgrade so they invest wisely today while staying ready for what’s coming next?
When planning a networking upgrade, my advice is to focus on your actual connectivity needs rather than simply chasing the highest speed number on the box. Today’s homes and small businesses are supporting more connected devices than ever before—from laptops and smartphones to smart home products, security systems, streaming devices, and cloud-based applications.
The most important factors are reliable coverage, network stability, and the ability to grow as your needs evolve. For many Canadians, that means looking at solutions such as mesh networking to eliminate dead zones, ensuring sufficient capacity for multiple users and devices, and choosing products that can support future technologies without requiring another major upgrade a year later.
That’s one reason we’re expanding our Wi-Fi 8 portfolio beyond traditional routers to include Deco 8 mesh systems, Roam 8 solutions, and new adapters. Different environments require different approaches, but the goal remains the same: delivering dependable connectivity wherever people work, live, and travel.
The good news is that consumers and SMBs don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. Investing in scalable, standards-based networking solutions today can help ensure they’re well positioned to take advantage of the next generation of connected experiences as Wi-Fi 8 adoption continues to grow.
