Have you ever thought about what Wi-Fi means? Or you may think you know what it means. But what you know is probably not true. If your answer is “Wireless Fidelity”, you are unfortunately wrong. We could even say that this is a trick question and that the term Wi-Fi doesn’t really mean anything.
An old interview with one of the founding members of the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2005 started spreading again on the internet and tells the story of how Wi-Fi came to be. The name was chosen from among ten considered by consulting firm Interbrand, founding member Phil Belanger said.
Wi-Fi’s original name was “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence,” but the Alliance knew that this name could not be used. They needed a more attractive name for the standard to be widely used, so they chose “Wi-Fi”.
If you are among the majority who think that the Wi-Fi expansion is “Wireless Fidelity”, we can say that the reason for this is the Wi-Fi Alliance. Belanger said some of his colleagues needed to explain the name “Wi-Fi”, not fully realizing that the name was a marketing choice. This led the Alliance to create the slogan “The Standard for Wireless Fidelity”.
“It was a mistake and it only served to confuse people,” Belanger says, describing it as “a clumsy attempt to put together two names that started with Wi and Fi.” This error was further highlighted by the Alliance’s production of hats and shirts bearing this motto. This slogan has been so successful that people from every business branch have started using the “wireless fidelity” abbreviation.
However, when we think about this expansion, we can say that it does not make much sense. From a technical standpoint, the word “fidelity” describes how well a device can reproduce a signal. For example, High-Fidelity (hi-fi) televisions can create an image that can almost be confused with reality. But Wi-Fi doesn’t work that way; it doesn’t reproduce anything, just as a way to connect devices.
That’s why Belangar wants people to forget this slogan and its misconception. Perhaps it would be better for everyone to stop thinking about the meaning of the word and focus on the technology itself and future updates with the Wi-Fi 7 standard.
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