Welcome

At 36,000 feet, Wi-Fi converts our airline seats to remote offices. It lets us read email in airports, watch video in coffee shops, and listen to music at home. Wi-Fi is everywhere. But where did it come from?

Wi-Fi and the Bad Boys of Radio takes us back to when the Internet was first gaining popularity, email took ten minutes to load up, and cell phones were big and unwieldy. But Alex Hills had a vision: people carrying small handheld devices that were always connected. His unwavering purpose was to change the way we use the Internet.

After being a teenage “ham operator” and bringing radio, TV and telephone service to the Eskimos of northern Alaska, Dr. Hills led a small band of innovators to overcome “the bad boys of radio” – the devilishly unpredictable behavior of radio waves – and build the network that would become the forerunner to today’s Wi-Fi. Read more

About Alex Hills

Alex Hills is Distinguished Service Professor of Engineering & Public Policy and Electrical & Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Hills is frequently invited to speak at conventions, conferences, university seminars, corporate training sessions, and community events.
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Excerpt from the Book