The History of Wi-Fi: Who Invented It And When?

Unraveling the Origins of Wireless Connectivity

With more wireless devices in the world than ever, Wi-Fi has become an essential part of our digital lives, allowing us to connect to the internet without being tethered to a wall. But have you ever wondered who came up with the idea and when it all started? Let's dive into the history of Wi-Fi and discover the fascinating journey behind its invention.

Guglielmo Marconi: An Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi was a pioneer in radio communication, the fundamental technology behind Wi-Fi. Best known for his development of wireless telegraph systems, Marconi developed a way to transmit morse code via telegraph over long distances, without the use of physical wires. This built the foundation for Wi-Fi’s eventual development.

Further experiments, such as sending the first transatlantic wireless signal, helped build the groundwork for long-distance wireless communication. His work helped establish standards and regulations regarding wireless communication, which would eventually be used to help develop other wireless communications, such as Wi-Fi.

Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil: In World War II, there was much concern over enemy intelligence being able to determine where radio-controlled torpedoes would be, or when they would be launched. The United States Navy wanted to keep this information out of the hands of the Axis powers but struggled to do so.

Hedy Lamarr recruited a composer she knew, George Antheil, to help solve this problem. Together, they worked on a system known as Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS), which allowed both radio transmitters and their receivers to hop between radio frequencies.

This helped prevent “eavesdroppers” by rotating the frequency the radio messages were sent across—eliminating the ability for the Germans to tune into one specific frequency and decode all the messages being sent across it. This also made it harder to jam the frequencies and block the radio signals from getting through, as the frequency changes were random and couldn’t be predicted.

Even if one frequency was jammed, the transmitters and receivers would change to another which could still pass information. Although not many of us know the term FHSS off the top of our heads, we’re aware of one of the places it is used: Wi-Fi. FHSS served as the basis for the development of secure wireless communications, and was incorporated into the IEEE standards for Wi-Fi, where it is used not only to secure wireless communications, but also to prevent or reduce interference in the bands.

Although their original experiment did not succeed, the technique O’Sullivan and his team invented to try to detect these signals proved to be a reliable way to transmit wireless signals between computers, even in areas with high amounts of interference. CSIRO patented this technique in 1992, and it became part of the IEEE 802.11 standards, making it a part of Wi-Fi to this day.

Victor Hayes: Known as the father of Wi-Fi, Victor “Vic” Hayes is a former researcher from the Delft University of Technology. Vic Hayes played an integral role in establishing the IEEE 802.11 Standards Working Group for Wireless Local Area Networks, which he also chaired.

Hayes was an integral part of the development of IEEE 802.11 standards, including 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. Hayes was also a key player in convincing authorities in Europe to dedicate radio spectrum to wireless LANs.

IEEE 802.11 Standard: The IEEE 802.11 Standard is a set of protocol and rules for wireless local area networks (WLANs). Developed in the late 1990s, the IEEE 802.11 standard was originally published in 1997, although it has been updated many times in the years since to account for changes in technology and improve range and transmission rates.

The IEEE 802.11 standard was originally based on a standard invented by AT&T and NCR Corporation in the Netherlands. The current standard in the series is IEEE 802.11ax, which is more commonly known as Wi-Fi 6 or WiFi 6e. WiFi 7, also known as IEEE 802.11be, is expected to be widely available in 2025—an exciting prospect promising much faster data rates and significant improvements in bandwidth.

Wi-Fi Alliance: An important part of getting people to use and trust Wi-Fi was ensuring that everyone using it had the best possible experience. In 1999, the Wi-Fi Alliance was formed to promote interoperability and create a catchy, usable name for this new technology. The term “Wi-Fi” was invented and in 2000, the name was put into use.

To this day, the Wi-Fi Alliance helps drive new technologies and certify Wi-Fi products, allowing customers to know they are getting a product that works exactly how they expect it to, every time they expect it.

Apple continued making their Airport line through 2018, when they discontinued these routers. Although Apple was the first to make in-home Wi-Fi available, Windows followed shortly after in 2001—and now the market is full of both wireless devices and the routers to send signals to them, with companies such as Netgear, Linksys, and TP-Link offering both commercial and personal routers at many price ranges.

Public Wi-Fi Hotspots: In 1993, at the NetWorld+Interop conference in San Francisco, Henrik Sjodin introduced the idea of public access WLANs. This is widely considered the first mention of the concept, although it did not reference the term “hotspot”. The term “hotspot” was developed by MobileStar, a wireless ISP, in 1998. MobileStar became the first company to provide Wi-Fi hotspots to businesses such as airports, coffee shops, and hotels—including Hilton and Starbucks.

Growth was relatively slow in hotspots at the time as wireless devices were not readily available to the average consumer until the release of the iPhone in 2008. This led to a rapid upscaling for Wi-Fi hotspots, with the worldwide number of hotspots reaching 1,000,000 in 2010. By 2015, there were 70 million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world.

The current standard, 802.11ax, makes use of the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands used in earlier Wi-Fi standards, but adds capability to use the wider and less crowded 6 Hz band. As wireless becomes more common and devices proliferate, much of the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands become crowded, increasing interference and causing issues with slow speeds and dropped connections. The next big upgrade to the IEEE 802.11 standard, IEEE 802.11be, is expected in 2024. This will also be known as Wi-Fi 7.