How Wi-Fi Almost Didn’t Happen

Wi-Fi officially launched 20 years ago, on September 15, 1999. There are many ways in which Wi-Fi might not have become ubiquitous, and instead HomeRF (home radio frequency) remained a competing standard. Had the Wireless Ethernet Compatability Alliance (WECA) chose to focus on just business connectivity, not "go-anywhere" connectivity, workers would have used "FlankSpeed" (a re-envisioned "Wi-Fi") at the office and HomeRF at home. It would be more difficult to bring work home with you. Neither an embattled FlankSpeed nor HomeRF could ever have been as cheap, or as pervasive, as Wi-Fi. The lack of a universal standard would have inhibited rollout at places like retail stores and public spaces where we’ve come to expect, even demand, access. 

Two surprise heroes of Wi-Fi were the US government (yes, the government helped!) and Apple. Not only was the Federal Communications Commission proactive in creating the rules that enabled Wi-Fi to exist in the first place, they changed the rules to allow new technologies to be developed, and they added frequency bands that made way for higher speeds. Apple was the first vendor to push the envelope with new Wi-Fi technology, not once, not twice, but at least three times. In Apple’s typical brand-forward fashion, when the iBook was introduced in 1999 as the first laptop with built-in Wi-Fi, they called it AirPort. Apple didn’t deign to call it Wi-Fi for years. Fortunately, we all now call it what it is, and Wi-Fi is (almost) always there when we need it. So, the next time you think about cursing a dead spot or scowl when your flight attendant tells you the Wi-Fi on the plane is down, take a deep breath and be thankful that you’re not connecting with the world at FlankSpeed.

[Jeff Abramowitz was an author of the original IEEE 802.11 standard, and a founder of the Wi-Fi Alliance and has held executive roles in the Wi-Fi industry for 25 years.]