What is WiFi?

Sometimes we can be so ignorant that we may not know what something is or how it works despite using it every single day. For instance, do you know how Wi-Fi works, or for that matter, what does it even stand for? Well, you will be able to answer the question after today. Just keep reading.

What does it Stand for?

You must be thinking that you have solved half the puzzle as “Wi” must stand for “wireless,” right?! Well, not really! Contrary to popular belief that it is short for something, it, in fact, does not mean anything. Though many people believe that Wi-Fi stands for wireless fidelity, it is merely a marketing term an advertisement agency came up with back in 1999 when the wireless technology hadn’t found its base among the masses.

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Where Did It Come from?

Wireless networking technology is older than most people conceive it. You might be surprised, but the technology had been designed around a decade before IBM offered us computers for our home and office. It was Norman Abramson, a professor at the University of Hawaii, who first transmitted data through the air using HAM radio in 1971. Since the HAM setup was quite expensive, it wasn’t until the 1990s when several formats and frequencies were proposed to set the standard wireless internet. By 1997, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE had agreed on 802.11 standards as the frequency for wireless connection, which evolved into 802.11b, 802.11a and then 802.11ac.

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Before we end things, check out some amazing facts about Wi-Fi.

#1. More than 70 percent of all the mobile communication these days is flowing through wireless internet.

#2. Though you may feel like it was only a few years back that you were using a dial-up connection, Wi-Fi has been in use for over 20 years now.

#3. Some terms that were used to refer to the wireless internet before people came up with Wi-Fi are WaveLAN, DragonFly, WECA, and FlankSpeed.

#4. While the global average internet speed is at just 5.6 Mbps, South Korea has zipped past the competition with a mean speed of 26.7 Mbps.

#5. While there are around 7 billion people in the world, the number of devices attached to the internet is over 23 billion, averaging 3 devices per person when most individuals in the world don’t even have smartphones.

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(Feature Image Courtesy: Benison Technologies)