Waves with Wireless Nerd
Join me for a weekly look into what's making waves in tech and the wireless industry! What's new? What's now? What's next?
Episodes
One story this week, and it's a big one. Cambium Networks Limited filed a Notice of Intention to appoint an administrator on 10 September, and the Nasdaq delisting appeal is finished. Drew walks through what's actually documented, how a company built out of Motorola Canopy and Orthogon ended up here, and what it means for anyone with Cambium gear in the air right now.
There's a history lesson in here about GPS sync a...
This week is about the parts of a deployment nobody puts on the datasheet. A license plate camera that reads perfectly all day and quits the moment infrared kicks in. Six seconds of a launch video that say more about a vendor's strategy than the product being launched. And the credential you need before a spectrum analyzer is allowed past the gate of a refinery.
Three stories, all from the same idea: the radio is rar...
A week that starts with three job openings that never got posted and ends in a Houston convention hall where the industry quietly admitted the build isn't the hard part anymore. Drew walks through what happens when you hand a hiring plan to a bot named after a president, and what happens when two thousand creators all hit upload in the same ballroom.
Then two takes on the Broadband Communities Summit, before and afte...
Three pieces this week, and one thread running under all of them: the industry keeps measuring the wrong thing. SpaceX has told the F-C-C that Starlink makes billions in rural subsidies pointless, and Drew argues the terrestrial side is going to lose the scalability argument no matter how hard it fights. The fight worth having is affordability.
Also in this episode: what actually breaks when a room full of creators a...
Three pieces from this week, and all of them circle the same question: who actually gets left behind when the technology works fine. SpaceX has told the F-C-C that Starlink makes billions a year in rural subsidies pointless, and I think the terrestrial side is going to lose that fight on the technical merits. So I'd rather argue the part that's winnable, which is what a household can afford to pay.
Then there's a res...
Miss the days when Wi‑Fi talk meant real problems, real tools, and real wins? Same here. I’m back on camera to unpack what actually moved the needle and what’s about to—from the push to standardize Wi‑Fi design to the quiet march toward Wi‑Fi 8 and the gear being pitched as “ready” for it. I share how a voice clone and an AI-powered workflow with Kero and Claude helped me build The Wire...
The wireless world just flipped from speed bragging rights to real‑world reliability, and we’re here for it. We break down how Wi‑Fi 7 went mainstream faster than anyone expected, why Cisco’s below‑6E pricing and AI‑ops licensing strategy vaulted them to the top, and what that means if you’re debating an upgrade from Wi‑Fi 6 or 6E. The decision no longer ends at the radio—it’s about com...
A week in Vegas turned into a crash course in where networking is headed—starting with a potato-smashing contest at Five Guys and ending with Eero tunnels landing cleanly in AWS. That gut-level, customer-first perspective sets the tone as we dig into real demos, new tools, and the shifting policies that shape what gets built next.
We unpack how a simple site-to-site VPN and a transit gateway can turn sm...
Special edition! Cloud meets real‑world scale on the Las Vegas strip as we line up two big stories: Amazon Leo’s leap to gigabit‑class LEO connectivity and a live eero deployment inside the largest Five Guys in the franchise. We set the scene for reInvent, map out the sessions worth your time, and explain how these pieces fit into a resilient, transport‑agnostic network strategy you can actually deploy.
A week in San Francisco rekindled the builder’s spirit: start with intent, then craft the hardware, software, and process to make that outcome inevitable. From the Pier 27 backdrop to on‑stage moments with Anil, Sunil, and Bob Metcalfe, we trace how desired state networking shifts the conversation away from bolt‑ons and toward autonomy, reliability, and clarity. Think less “features” and more &ldqu...
Tomorrow’s Meter Up has the Wi‑Fi world buzzing, and we’re stepping into it with a full slate of stories reshaping how we connect. We set the stage with what we want to learn from Meter’s year of deployments—real outcomes, support models, and how Wi‑Fi 7 fits when most devices are still 6E—then fan out to the bigger map: carriers, cafes, satellites, and the stubborn problem of affordabi...
Headlines hit hard this week, and we stitched them into a practical roadmap you can use. We start with the fresh demos pointing toward Wi‑Fi 8’s multi‑AP future—coordinated radios, smarter spectral reuse, and AI‑assisted congestion control aimed squarely at dense campuses where roaming and contention burn time and budget. Some features may stay aspirational, but the signal is clear: access points are lea...
What if the best ISP on your block doesn’t own the tower—or even the access network? Drew sits down with Matt Larson, founder and CEO of VistaBeam and chair of WISPA, to explore how open access for fixed wireless and fiber could flip the broadband model from top to bottom. With radio platforms now supporting hundreds of subscribers per sector and multi‑operator IDs on the same AP, shared infrastructure i...
A polo field, a VIP tent, and thousands of devices waiting to light up—this week we take you behind the scenes of building a festival‑grade network that had to stand up fast, survive wind and wobble, and still deliver when John Mayer took the stage. We share the practical playbook: dual circuits into a gateway, 60 GHz point‑to‑multipoint for distribution, clean PoE runs to access points, and the small field ha...
The wireless world never stops evolving, and in this episode, Drew Lentz takes us on a journey through the latest developments across multiple technology frontiers. Starting with Apple's intriguing N1 chip introduction, Drew explores what this means for wireless communications and sparks a fascinating discussion about whether Apple might resurrect their once-popular Airport routers. Could this custom silicon be the ...
The telecommunications landscape is undergoing a seismic shift as major players consolidate their hold on crucial spectrum assets. AT&T's stunning $23 billion acquisition of Echo Star's spectrum holdings grants them control of valuable 600 MHz low-band frequencies—airwaves that travel farther and penetrate buildings better than higher frequencies. Meanwhile, SpaceX's $17 billion purchase of Echo Star's sat...
Ever wonder what happens when you need to provide Wi-Fi for half a million surfing fans? Drew Lentz returns to the Waves Podcast after an exhilarating stint deploying 27 access points at the World Surf League's US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach. Between coordinating connectivity for food trucks, security teams, merchants, and celebrity appearances, the wireless challenges were as massive as the waves.
Th...
Fresh from his first trip to Australia, Drew Lentz dives into the evolving landscape of wireless networking with observations that span from down under to the stratosphere. The Melbourne adventure yielded more than just kangaroo sightings and chicken "parmies" – it showcased how different regions approach connectivity challenges with innovative solutions.
The industry continues its dramatic reshuffling ...
The wireless networking landscape is witnessing a dramatic shift as revealed in the newly released 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Wired and Wireless LAN Infrastructure. Juniper Networks has emerged as the clear frontrunner, claiming the coveted top-right position with superior marks for both execution capability and strategic vision. Meanwhile, longtime industry leader Cisco shows signs of strategic drif...
The future of networking isn't about whether AI will transform our industry—it's about how quickly professionals will adapt to these inevitable changes. In this candid discussion, Drew Lentz unpacks the major developments from recent industry events, particularly Cisco Live, where AI dominated conversations across the vendor landscape.
AI Canvas, Cisco's entry into agentic AI, signals a pivotal shift in...
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