This month, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Wi-Fi — one of the most transformative connectivity technologies on the planet. It’s an incredible moment for the industry to be proud of. As I reflect on the past 25 years, standing on the shoulders of giants who had the vision to brand and launch the technology, there are five key milestones and inflection points that changed the trajectory of Wi-Fi. In fact, I have been blessed to have had a front row seat for some of these epoch-making moments. Let’s take a look:
#1: 1999: First and foremost, is the Steve Jobs’ iconic “One more thing” reveal at the 1999 Macworld event in New York that truly catapulted Wi-Fi into the limelight. In his own ingenious way, the late Jobs wowed the world by introducing the iBook laptop, fully equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity, marking a pivotal moment in digital communication. Jaws were wide open.
#2: 2008: The pioneering of the world’s first Bluetooth-Wi-Fi combo, miniaturizing both technologies into a single chip. This ensured that the two work harmoniously together despite using the same airwaves. I was a blue-eyed product manager at Broadcom, watching the team in awe as they revolutionized the mobile phone with Wi-Fi. Today, Bluetooth Wi-Fi combos have changed the game for mobile. Without these two technologies coexisting properly in the combo, Wi-Fi would not have taken off in the phone, and we would not have had mobile internet at that point.
#3: 2013: Google launched Chromecast bringing the OTT era to the mainstream. There were other Wi-Fi streaming devices in the market by then, but the heavyweight Google brand really thrust the use case forward. This also coincided with the Wi-Fi world enabling the robust Wi-Fi 4 (802.11ac).
#4 2016: Devices like Eero and Google Wi-Fi revolutionized home networking with their Wi-Fi mesh technology giving us all a true whole home experience.
#5 2020: Chairman Ajit Pai and FCC opened up 1200 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band, which not only boosts Wi-Fi speed performance, but also reduces the uplink and downlink latency. This monumental decision dramatically kickstarted a wave of Wi-Fi innovation focused on latency, capacity and reliability. Wi-Fi 6E was a harbinger for things to come with the Wi-Fi space age! This is one that I am personally proud of too for the small role we played in seeing this through.
Today, Wi-Fi is ubiquitous fulfilling your every internet, and data need. While the past 25 years of Wi-Fi has been impressive, I am excited about the possibilities and opportunities that lie ahead for Wi-Fi. We look forward to the next 25 years.
