Cutting the Cord: How Wireless Andrew Paved the Way for Today’s Wi-Fi

What if the wireless connection you take for granted began as a small research experiment, and only revealed its true potential when students hacked their way onto it?

In this episode, we're joined by Alex Hills, Distinguished Service Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and the creator of Wireless Andrew, the world’s first large-scale Wi-Fi network.

Alex's story begins in 1970s rural Alaska, where he helped bring the first telephone, radio, and television service to remote villages reachable only by boat, snowmobile, or bush plane. Working in wind chills of 50 below, he and his colleagues replaced limited VHF radiophones with a network of small, affordable satellite earth stations that transformed communications across the state.

That work led him to get his PhD at CMU's Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and later to return as the first director of the university’s pioneering Information Networking Institute. In 1993, at a time when computers were clunky devices tethered to desks, Alex and his colleagues at the Institute asked a bold question: how can we access computing – and the newly born internet – anytime, anywhere?

The answer was to build a wireless test bed on two floors of CMU’s Wean Hall to connect researchers to each other and the internet. When students heard about this wireless network, they hacked past the password protection and soon outnumbered the researchers. Alex had his light bulb moment – wireless was going to be big. By the end of the decade, Wireless Andrew covered CMU's core campus and became a prototype for wireless networks around the world, years before anyone had even heard the word "Wi-Fi." Alex would later become the university’s Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer.

Alex also shares his passion for connecting the world through his work with Technology Consulting in the Global Community, better known as "Geeks on a Mission," and his current research on how low earth orbit satellites can bring broadband to underserved communities worldwide.

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