• Question: How was Wi-Fi invented?

    Asked by Harry JC to Adam, Deborah, Matt on 22 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Adam Hargreaves

      Adam Hargreaves answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      Hi Harry JC,
      I had no idea about this so just looked it up (good ole’ Wikipedia) and I still don’t think I can answer your question fully. It looks like there’s been a long and complicated history behind what we now call Wi-Fi, the one detail I could get is that the invention of Wi-Fi is credited to a radio astronomer called John O’sullivan, and it’s invention was a by-product (which could also be a mistake…) whilst him and his team were trying to look for mini black holes in space. Sorry I can’t give a clearer answer!

    • Photo: Matthew Lee

      Matthew Lee answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      Same as Adam, i had no idea. Wikipedia is the place to go tho. Looks as though just before John got his Wi-Fi off the ground the standard we use (802.11) was being used by tills in shops. So i guess we have Wi-Fi because shops wanted to be able to use wireless tills….

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