Riding the Wi-Fi Waves: An Exploration of Wireless Advancements and Challenges

Ready to surf the airwaves on the crest of the latest advancements in the wireless industry? Strap in as we navigate the exhilarating world of Wi-Fi, discussing everything from the Wi-Fi 7 product launch to the implications of the discontinuation of free Wi-Fi devices for Houston ISD students. We'll also offer a fresh take on providing access to communities with a wireless-first approach, challenging the conventional focus on fiber.

In our quest for universal internet access, we advocate for a bold mobile-first approach. Witness stellar initiatives such as Boingo Wireless's demonstration of their 5G Wi-Fi at the Association of Defense Communities, and Qatar Airways's high-speed Wi-Fi onboard. We also give a nod to the Google Wi-Fi team for their excellent Wi-Fi, power and space facilities. 

But that's not all! We're also spicing it up with a bit of humor, courtesy of the Bucknell University student newspaper's take on the four basic human needs. We also delve into the latest tech updates, including Apple's H2 chip and the 5G wireless frequency. We'll even touch on the dissatisfaction among renters with current Wi-Fi services and discuss potential solutions. As we build up to the upcoming Association of Broadcasters conference, we promise to keep you in the loop with all the exciting developments in the world of wireless technology and Wi-Fi. So, tune in, and let's ride the Wi-Fi waves together.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Well, it is a Monday, November 6th 2023. And this is Waves with Wireless Nerd. Good morning everybody. I hope everybody's having a wonderful Monday morning. I want to cover a couple of different things that's happening, some news I've been reading, some events that are going on. All kinds of great stuff. It's been a fantastic week Still coming off that high at WLPC from Prague Just so many great things.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Been watching everything that's happening online, seeing all the streaming stuff, looking at all the videos that have been popping up. It's just been really, really good to see. So I'm excited to see all the chatter, everything that's happening with WLPC. Just what a great congregation of people that were there hanging out. And now our sites turn to WLPC in Phoenix, and so, again, this is obviously wireless heavy, as usual. So if you're involved in the wireless industry, the Wi-Fi industry at all, make sure you make plans to come out to Phoenix for WLPC.

Speaker 1: 1:26

It's happening the week of the 19th, I believe, 19th through 22nd of February, and let me confirm those dates just because I don't wanna be giving out bad information. It's in 2024, usa, phoenix, arizona. The 20th through the 22nd is the date of the show, so it's gonna be pretty cool. We're gonna have a good time. A bunch of us will be out there. So many representatives from the industry are gonna be around whether it's manufacturers or producers or people or enthusiasts or whatever it is, we're all gonna be there.

Speaker 1: 1:58

Give me one second. I'm looking at my LinkedIn here. I just gotta make sure that this thing is streaming the way that it's supposed to be, because I do get a lot of interaction from LinkedIn, which is always great. It's always good to see people who are excited about talking about things like this, and I put this thing on every week and I just wanna cover a couple basic topics what's new, what's now, what's next and I am streaming, so that's fantastic. Anyway, that being said, I just wanna run over some of the things that are going on in the news.

Speaker 1: 2:27

No huge product announcements this week. I know Wi-Fi 7 is really dominating a lot of the conversations that are taking place when it comes to Wi-Fi, so we're starting to see more and more vendors and manufacturers. They're putting out their Wi-Fi 7 product and that's exciting on the way to Wi-Fi 8. Here we go. So Wi-Fi 7, I think Tom's hardware did a review of a Wi-Fi 7 access point or router for residential and the biggest thing that they could talk about is how it had two LED screens built into the front of it. It wasn't even about the capability of Wi-Fi 7 and all the stuff that matters to all the nerds that are working on everything behind the scenes. So, either way, that was good to see, but one of the things that keeps popping up and I saw a news article about it this morning one of the things that I wanted to talk about a little bit, and I don't like to hammer on things that I think might only be important to me, but this article popped up this morning and it made me think.

Speaker 1: 3:26

You know, I deal with I've dealt with a lot of municipalities, a lot of communities and school districts that are trying to figure out ways to broad, you know, to solve the digital divide and broaden the horizons, if you will, and everything from you know, from Wi-Fi and LTE and Wi-Fi on school buses and private 5G and everything else, and so you know we've dealt with these, with these systems, for quite a long time. There's a lot of really cool things that are happening in the United States from the perspective of the government being able to provide access and funding for people to increase their connectivity. But one of the things that I see that's super concerning still and I haven't kept up, so the rules might have changed, but as far as I know they haven't changed is that some of this money that's going out the Bede funding that's going out is very fiber heavy, and I'd like to propose an alternate viewpoint or an alternate perspective when it comes to providing broadband access to communities. You know, a lot of people think that you have to start with fiber and you have to build from the ground up. You have to lay the infrastructure and you have to get the fiber in the ground and then, once you have the fiber, you can do everything and it'll solve all the problems and everybody will be happy and equitable and everything else, and that's just not true. I don't like that perspective at all.

Speaker 1: 4:35

I like the idea that if you start from the air and you work your way down, maybe that's a different and alternative way to do this and you know, what I would propose is, if you're looking at providing access to your community, whether it's a municipality or a school district, why not look at wireless first? Why not look at doing a private 5G network or doing a private LTE network or something where you start at the top and you provide access to everyone on their mobile devices and their tablets and their air cards and in home and whatever it is, and then when you can get the money and the budget to run the fiber to provide better access to that wireless network, then do that. But you don't have to start at the expensive route with fiber. You don't have to lay the fiber first to get everything done. The fiber can come later.

Speaker 1: 5:21

Right now, work on solving the problem. Work on solving the issue at hand, which is making sure that everybody, because a lot of these stop gap things that have been produced over the last few years especially, you know, with the COVID stuff in the United States are now starting to fall apart. And the one that I wanna call out is from it's from six days ago and this is on ABC 13 in Houston and they're reporting that the free WiFi devices that were provided to Houston ISD through a program with Verizon are now going away. More than 56,000 Houston ISD students are soon gonna be without internet access. As a nonprofit warns, a district has not re-signed a deal to keep the resources in the community, and this is called Verizon's digital promise. It came to the district in 2020. It helped 36 Houston ISD schools with laptops and tablets and hotspots. But now they're saying that in about two weeks, in about a week from now, it might go away, and that's an issue, right?

Speaker 1: 6:19

We all knew that when people were doing these, well, verizon's just gonna provide hotspots to everybody in the community, or you know, or there's funding today so that people could, you know, just release these hotspots or rent these hotspots from Verizon. We knew that. That one last long and districts that made that decision are now sitting there going wait a minute, we just threw all this money away. We could have been using this former permanent solution to provide access to our students and they didn't. And now that some of the funding's coming out and they're saying, well, you gotta go Fiber or you know it's Fiber preferred. That's creating another issue, because it's like who's got the money to do all of this? So, again, this is a wireless, wireless centric audience here. Right, why not push it a little bit harder? Let's push 5G, let's push private networks into these municipalities and into these school districts a little bit more, because Fiber is not the only answer when it comes to these things. And now some of these districts are gonna have a number of students that don't have the internet connectivity that they've gotten used to over the last couple years, because these districts didn't believe in pushing their own network or working with cities to provide their own network. Instead, they just waited for that promise of Fiber, which still a lot of projects aren't done and the ones that get done, or the ones that are looking down, are so expensive. Anyway, that's more of an editorial right, but I thought I'd share that because I do deal with a lot of these. You know I've dealt with a lot of districts and municipalities.

Speaker 1: 7:44

I think, really, if you're looking at ways to solve the digital divide, why not look at mobile first? Everyone has a phone in their pocket, everyone's got an iPad, all these laptops and stuff that are out there. Great, running fiber to people's houses, into their workplaces, is fantastic when the people are at home, but what about when they're not at home? What about when they're on the go? What about when they're moving? What about when they have to do their homework in someone else's backyard because mom and dad are at a party or an event or whatever it is? It's, you know, when you start to think from a mobile first perspective. A lot of things, a lot of things start to pop out Now. Anyway, speaking of mobile first, there's some great things are happening. I'm looking at Boingo Wireless to discuss 5G Wi-Fi and base housing solutions at the Association of Defense Communities annual event and that sparks my interest because of the work that I did with open Wi-Fi and that Boingo's made some really cool announcements with. It's really great to see some of this democratized Wi-Fi out there working its way. I hope that you know there's more progress on that.

Speaker 1: 8:39

More connectivity news Qatar Airways is offering Starlink high speed Wi-Fi in their flights now, which is interesting because this is Starlink outpacing. I think it was InmarSat that, yeah, inmarsat's GX Aviation component that was on there. There's a super Wi-Fi offering. Well, now Starlink is coming in and they're saying it's gonna be free. Super Wi-Fi was 10 bucks a flight. Now Starlink Wi-Fi will be complimentary for all passengers on some of these flights with Qatar Airways. So good news there for those of us that sit in airplanes, you know the more, the more the bar is pushed there, the more of us get to benefit from that.

Speaker 1: 9:17

Speaking of pushing the bar, I run a whole bunch of scanners to see what's happening on the news and what's going on and this article came up. So I need to give a shout out. You know credit where credit is due Google's deep mind robotics head on general purpose robots and generative AI and office Wi-Fi. So the head of this group of deep mind was talking about how he's moving offices and I just want to give a shout out here because this is just really cool part of the article and it said that you know they're moving into the alphabet offices, which is kind of neat. Imagine the alphabet X offices, the Google alphabet X offices. Is there a reason that you all decided to move? He said well, it's a very pragmatic decision. They have good Wi-Fi, good power and lots of space. So shout out to the Google Wi-Fi team. The question was I would hope that all Google buildings would have good Wi-Fi and he said you'd hope so, right, well, shout out to the crew over at Google making sure that everyone over there is keeping the latest and greatest innovations properly aired up, if you will, with good Wi-Fi.

Speaker 1: 10:18

Speaking of good Wi-Fi, this week there's been a lot of Interesting chatter from the EDU side from higher ed about problems with Wi-Fi outages and Bucknillion, the weekly student newspaper of Bucknell University since 1896 reports food, water, sleep and Wi-Fi. If you break what humans need down to the simplest components, those are the four things that you'll find the most, and most of them are pretty self-explanatory, though many Bucknilians would argue you don't actually need sleep, and fortunately here at Bucknell it can also be difficult to find what's perhaps the most important necessity Wi-Fi and apparently it's no surprise to anyone on campus that one of the professors there explains that maybe the Wi-Fi doesn't work because of aliens Aliens you might. Be more surprising is that aliens seem to enjoy shutting down the Wi-Fi whenever you need it most. For example, they always strike 11.57 pm on a Friday night when you have a paper where 20% of your grade due by 11.59 pm. For answers to this question, they turn to their resident alien expert on campus, professor Ulysses F Olson. Olson claims that while Wi-Fi outages are caused by aliens, they aren't malicious. Instead, much like Bucknilians, aliens love to party. I've actually attended a few alien parties myself. How are they? I don't remember. They wipe out your memory before you leave. It's okay, though. Can't remember any frat parties that I attended either. Anyway. So apparently EDU, bucknell University go look over there for Alien Hotbed In other news about Wi-Fi being plagued.

Speaker 1: 11:50

Apple is releasing the new 17.2 iOS update and if you've been having problems with Wi-Fi on your Apple devices, this is a known issue and Apple has addressed it apparently in this new build, build 21C5029G specifically. That issue has been resolved. Until then. If you haven't updated, turn your Wi-Fi on and then turn it back off again apparently is what is solving the issue with loss of connectivity. So if you're on iOS 17, make sure you update to iOS 17.2 and that should fix that.

Speaker 1: 12:28

In other Apple news, I was having this conversation with a friend of mine when we were out at WLPC Again, shameless plug for my favorite conference. We were talking about the new USB-C AirPods and the lossless audio. It's fantastic. The audio in these AirPods is phenomenal. Apple says lossless audio in the USB-C AirPods Pro requires both the updated H2 chip and support for 5 GHz wireless frequency. Wait a minute, what? The Apple H2 chip in the previous second generation, the H1, were limited to 2.4 only. In other words, you need the H2 chip and faster 5G wireless to enjoy lossless audio on USB-C. So to my friends with all their fancy spectrum analyzers I would love it if someone would flip open some AirPods and start streaming some punk rock music and show me what 5G looks like. Now that AirPods are using 5G To bring lossless audio and low latency audio division Pro as well, many things have to work. With the new AirPods Pro you can actually run this in 5G. The 5GHz spectrum now has a new friend hanging out because of anyone using the USB-C charging cases on the new Apple AirPods. Be on the lookout for that, as well as Qualcomm.

Speaker 1: 13:50

Qualcomm Snap Dragon Sound Get ready. Earbuds that can play lossless audio are headed to Wi-Fi in 2024. Here we go. The word interlopers, right? No, it's all wireless. Snap Dragon Sound is a set of audio technologies developed by Qualcomm, a leading semiconductor and telecommunications company that's currently also under investigation for infringing Redwood's Wi-Fi patent portfolio. That's breaking in the news. Hope that doesn't mess up the cost of Qualcomm's Snap Dragon chips. Anyway, snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or later processor, the apt-X lossless codec, cd quality sound, it says on the S7, the S7 Pro. It will be running across Wi-Fi networks and it is talking about operating specifically in five gigahertz. So this is another one of those things that you know when we have to think about all of the chatter that's out there in the Wi-Fi industry. It's no longer just limited to whichever devices we're communicating with. Also, it says look out, bose is the group that uses some of those, so look for that.

Speaker 1: 14:55

Watch out for these headphones. You know there was a statistic about how much money Apple makes on AirPods and it is insane. Apple's AirPod revenue alone generate roughly $12.1 billion per year more than the revenue of Spotify, twitter or Shopify. Insane how much AirPods make. This is from December 2021, shows that Apple AirPods alone make more than like a ton of different tech companies that are out there. So they're not going away, but what they are doing is they are moving into new spaces. So be on the lookout. If you're looking for interferers five gigahertz, you know thank God, here comes the six gig stuff. But if you're looking for interferers and five gig, pay attention to how many AirPods or the new Snapdragon lossless audio is gonna be out there.

Speaker 1: 15:48

So, along those same lines, you know we talked about universities having some wifi issues. There is a new report. As of November 1st 2023, in broadband communities, most renters are dissatisfied with their current wifi services. A new report by a leading provider of property management solutions for the rental housing industry claims that only 1% of renters have the wifi services they want at their current residents. 1%, 1%, that's crazy. So if you're in that space or thinking about moving in that space, some good metrics. Would be great to see that the smart rent community wifi report is at the smart rent website. If you head on over to gosmartrentcom slash wifi, there's an entire report about community wifi Pretty fantastic. So take a look at that.

Speaker 1: 16:36

That is going on. What else is going on? Airpods and data sheets and all those things. Oh my, now this is a. You know we've been running for a little bit. I try and keep these things short, but what? But I do want to talk about real quick. No, in November We've got mobility field day is coming up. If you're not Familiar with all the tech field day things go, just give a quick Google to mobility field day and mobility field day is coming up. There's gonna be some some friends of mine on there as well as some other friends of mine from a couple of different companies. That's serious XM radio trying to get me to renew my, my subscription. I went to rest real. I cut off serious XM I'm. I'm 100% terrestrial right now. It's been, it's been interesting, but, man, I missed the airwaves. I really miss a am radio a whole lot, but that's just me anyway.

Speaker 1: 17:25

A mobility field day which is coming up November 15th and 16th 2023. It's MFD 10 Man's already 10 Cisco, vintive, y, bot and Nile. Take a look my buddies, darrell der Roja, keith Parsons, lead badman May will be there. A Mike believe, though Don't know Mike. Hi, mike, how's it going? Sam Clements, scott McDermott, shama Cranko and Troy Martin, the the wonderful Troy Martin. They will be the delegates for MFD. So pay attention to that.

Speaker 1: 17:53

And also happening at the same time in Mexico. If you are a resident of Mexico, lindo or Latin America, make your way down to WLPC in the FA. Fernand will be there. There's gonna be some great stuff happening at WLPC in Mexico. So if I don't attend mobility field day, I will probably try and jump on a plane and cruise down and go hang out with the crew WLPC in Mexico. I think it'd be a great time. That being said, as I mentioned the, the stuff is up from WLPC and Prague. If you haven't had a chance, go look at the videos.

Speaker 1: 18:25

Go vote on the sessions for WLPC 2024. That is the one of the most important things you can do. If you're in the Wi-Fi industry Go to wireless LAN pros. Look for WLPC, vote for the topics that you want to hear because, remember, at that conference Everything is selected by you. So please vote on what you want to hear. Get ready, there's gonna be some incredible boot camps.

Speaker 1: 18:44

This is the 10-year anniversary of WLPC and if you want to know why I talk about it all the time and why I'm so adamant about it, then you should totally go. Make plans to go. You'll understand what I'm talking about once you've been. It is a phenomenal event. All right, this one's a little bit shorter than the others. That's kind of a little bit of what's now.

Speaker 1: 19:01

What's new, what's next? What's now? Obviously there's some problems with Wi-Fi, but those are being fixed on the Apple release, hopefully the Qualcomm AirPod you know the Qualcomm headphones and the AirPods aren't causing too much destruction. What's new We've got? You know there are some things. All the Wi-Fi 7 stuff is coming out, but no huge things to announce this week Going on in the industry. And what's next? Well, you're a for WLPC, get your learn on. And then CES.

Speaker 1: 19:26

As usual, ces is coming up National, the Association of Broadcasters is coming up. Nabs a great meaning for anyone involved in wireless. That's a huge conference in Vegas, but but yeah, I hope everybody has a wonderful week. Like I said, this is a little bit shorter, but that's okay. We got a couple more episodes coming up in some special, some special guests Dave Todd, I'm going to bring you on. We're gonna talk about buffer blow, which is gonna be really, really exciting Coordinating that one to our buddy Frank over in Prague. Other than that man, I got nothing. Y'all have a wonderful week, enjoy it and and we'll talk to you next week, see ya.