Couple of observations from my dell latitude e5470 + DW1820A
Windows, reboot into 10.11.5, wifi works properly (can turn on/off, works after sleep)
Ubuntu, reboot into 10.11.5, wifi doesn't work
10.11.5, reboot directly into Ubuntu, wifi doesn't work
10.11.5, reboot into Windows, then Ubuntu, wifi works
Within Ubuntu, wifi works. After sleep, wifi doesn't work. I can manually scan and detect wifi networks, but cannot force device to connect.
Sounds like a nvram issue/device-firmware setup issue for my laptop. Windows something correctly that osx and Ubuntu doesn't
Tried patching OSI in 10.11.5, no luck