What does WiFi actually stand for?

Have you ever wondered what WiFi stands for?

(via  buzzfeed.com)

Well, short answer... it stands for NOTHING. Nothing, really! Disappointed?
Don't be. Back in the 1999 people from the IEEE committee needed a catchy name for the what later became "WiFi" and they found it: WiFi.

From  scientificamerican.com

"Way back in 1999 the fledgling wireless industry needed a marketing name for the new products that conformed to the technical specifications called 'IEEE 802.11'. 'IEEE 802.11' didn't have much of a ring to it, and the industry association wanted a catchy name. They came up with wi-fi, and that's what's been used ever since.
"It didn’t hurt that the name rhymes with 'hi-fi,' which was short for 'high fidelity,' a term that, back in the day, referred to high-quality sound systems. Some people even say that wi-fi therefore stands for 'wireless fidelity,' but those who were involved in the industry association's process of selecting a name say it's not really true. They say that the name was always just wi-fi."

Comments

Purushotham said…
Hi,
I have really found your blog very useful and informative.
In this article, I have a doubt that maybe Wi-Fi actually stands for "Wireless Fidelity".

Thank you

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