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 “the network just does what we expect”—and if it drifts, it self‑corrects and tells us why.
We dig into the product details that make that vision real: SFP ports moved to avoid snags, dual‑board firewalls for built‑in redundancy, and an IP67 AP that can switch antenna patterns in software for warehouses, hospitality, and large retail. Operations take center stage as Michelle shows how kitting, rack studs, and pre‑tilted AP mounts cut install time from minutes to seconds, standardize outcomes, and shrink on‑site surprises. It’s the part of networking that saves budgets and reputations, even if it rarely gets the headline.
Then the industry lens widens. T‑Mobile’s network slicing at the Las Vegas Grand Prix delivers dedicated lanes for first responders, payments, and media—wireless as a dynamic service, not a fixed asset. Ubiquiti blends a Wi‑Fi 7 bridge inside a switch for flexible uplinks. Europe’s upper 6 GHz decision pushes more indoor performance toward cellular while Wi‑Fi 7 continues its rapid rise, with Dell’Oro forecasting dominance by 2028. We also spotlight OpenRoaming’s momentum as Purple makes entry‑level onboarding and roaming enablement free, and a Wi‑Fi HaLow collaboration from Morse Micro and GL.iNet that stretches low‑power IoT across campuses and fields. Along the way, a dose of tech nostalgia reminds us why clarity matters: build systems that make the right outcome the easy one.
Join us for a grounded tour of what’s shipping, what’s changing, and what’s actually useful. If the vision of autonomous, intent‑driven networks gets you curious—or if you just want practical wins you can deploy this quarter—hit play, subscribe, and share your thoughts. And if you’ll be at AWS re:Invent, message us to swing by our live demo and say hello.
Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks!
🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com!
💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (04:05):
What's up, y'all?
It's Drew Lins the WirelessNerd, and this is the Waves
Weekly Digest for November 20ththrough 24th, 2025.
This is some new stuff thatwe've seen talking about, but I
want to start off before we getinto any of that and talk about
meter up.
Now, meter up happened this weekand it was a phenomenal event.
I can't say enough about it.
I've had about a week to go overit in my head and think about
(04:27):
what went right and what wentwrong and what I learned and
what I think everybody learned.
And I think overall it was justreally, really great.
You know, I I got to interviewsome of the people there, I got
to talk to some of the peoplethere, I got to, you know, learn
from the leaders that were thereand really appreciate what was
happening at the event.
And I think a couple thingsstand out even now, a week
later.
First and foremost, the factthat it was at Pier 27 at
(04:49):
Fisherman's Wharf in SanFrancisco was really, really
cool.
I mean, you walked in thebuilding, you felt like you were
in San Francisco.
They had these huge doors open,you could look out and see the
sun shining over the bay, andyou say you saw the bay bridge
in the background, you saw theentire skyline just unfold
before your eyes, and it wasjust a great place to be.
(05:09):
And it's been it was veryreminiscent of one of the first
times that I went to the BayArea when I got involved in
technology and growing up inSouth Texas, you know, I didn't
have a lot of access to some ofthe products and the companies
and whatnot.
But I remember the first timegoing out there and I went
dumpster diving just to godumpster diving to say that I
had done it.
I didn't find anything buttrash, but that's a different
story.
But it really reminded me of athrowback to what it was like
(05:32):
when all of the stuff wasstarting, the ISPs were cranking
up, the dot-coms were happening,technology companies were these
incredible things that existedso far away from where I lived
that there was just thispresence, this awe of what was
happening out there.
And when I went out there formeter up, I had a lot of really
good reminiscent feelings andnostalgia about everything.
(05:56):
And I don't know why.
I mean, it just hit me when Isaw the Skyline Trans America
Tower, and you're looking outthere and you're there for a
tech company, and you turn toyour left, and it's this big
open warehouse area, and peopleare walking around sharing
coffee, and all the meteremployees are walking around
their black jackets.
It was just really, it wasreally neat.
And I didn't expect to have thatfeeling when I heard Anil speak
(06:18):
and with the theme of the wholeevent, but it kept creeping up
on me where Anil talked abouthow technology has gotten to
this point where everybody'sjust bolted so much on that
meter's ideas to build from theground up.
Start with something fresh,start with something new, start
with an idea and a concept andbuild it from the ground up
instead of you know aggregatingdifferent companies or different
(06:40):
technology components to put itall together.
And that was such a cool way toharken back to those old days of
people just getting, you know,rolling up their sleeves and
building something brand new forthe sake of building it brand
new.
And that that's shown throughoutthe whole thing.
I mean, it wasn't just about theway that you know the way that
they started the company and andthe ethos that they take for
(07:01):
building the hardware, but italso had to do with why settle
for what is normal today.
You know, one of the funniestmoments was when Joshua, who's
in you know in charge of alltheir hardware, uh comes out and
talks about moving the SFP portsfrom the right hand side to the
left hand side, and he had thismoment where he talked about 1.2
millimeters and two millimetersand the difference between
(07:22):
snagging your shirt on somethingand not, and how all of that
just has to fit perfectly into afaceplate, and now everybody is
going and looking at SFP portsto realize that they do protrude
on every other piece ofequipment just by enough that
you could snag your shirt on it.
But then it was the question ofwhy?
Why would you move the SFP portsover to the left instead of
keeping them on the right?
(07:43):
And it was because they could.
It was because they weren'tthinking traditionally, they
were thinking about what madethe most sense to them.
And really diving deep into thatwas Sunil when he popped up and
he started talking about the waythat they were designing these
networks for desired statenetworking.
And it was this whole change inthought process of the way that
(08:04):
that the network should work.
And you know, a lot of it has todo with with what people are
terming SLAs and QOE and allthese quality of experience, but
it's more about what is it thatyou want from the network?
What do you want the network todo?
And how do you build thehardware and the software so
that the network will just actthe way that it's supposed to
when it's supposed to?
(08:24):
And there was so much of that.
And Sunil talking about you knowhis onboarding experience when
he brings new employees in andabout how he designs this, it
doesn't even design anything.
Sorry, he uses this iPad wherehe draws out how their mentality
is when it comes to buildingthese networks and these devices
and the software.
It was just a really, reallyneat moment.
(08:45):
And when you add on top of that,the throwback of having Bob
Metcalf there, which was justtotally freaking awesome.
I honestly didn't expect him tobe as funny as he was, and it
was just really great for him tobe out there and sharing some
great moments about the way theEthernet was was conceived and
built and why and how and where,and realizing that you're
(09:05):
listening to someone talk aboutan approach to technology that
it's the same approach thatSunil and Anil are taking with
meter.
It was really just really neatto have someone who could be
there who's been there since thebeginning to see how far this
has come and to see people doingthe things that he was doing so
many years ago to build thistechnology and build this
(09:26):
connectivity to really makethings connect.
And I think one of the mainthings that was missing that was
really cool was AI.
It was like it was it wasn'ttalked about.
We didn't talk about AI.
It was like a dirty word almost.
And even Bob Metcalf joked withAnil about AI being a bubble,
and he said he wasn't gonnaanswer that.
And there was a lot of fun,there was a lot of fun back and
(09:47):
forth about it, but it wasn'tthe idea of AI, it was about the
idea of what some semblance ofAI could do for you and do for
your network and do for yourbusiness.
And it was more about that goingback to that desired state
networking of being able to havea network do what it's supposed
to do when it's supposed to doit, and if it's not doing it,
(10:08):
have it automatically figurethat out and then fix itself and
prompt you and say, Hey, this iswhat I did, or hey, this is what
I need to do, but I needapproval to do it.
It was along those lines leadingup to them talking about
building the first fullyautonomous networks in 2027 as
their goal.
And that was so cool because youhad this moment where we're all
sitting there and they werelike, they were talking, I mean,
(10:29):
they were just talking about,they were showing off all the
components they needed to do toor to complete in order to do
what they set out to do, whichis that fully autonomized
network.
Now, speaking of components,they introduced some really cool
hardware that was very simplynamed, which was great.
They had, you know, switch one,two, and three, which were named
S1, S2, and S3.
They had firewall, F1, F2, andF3.
(10:49):
And what was really neat aboutone of their firewalls is they
took two firewall boards andstuck them in the same 19-inch
one RU cabinet or I'm sorry, uhuh rack mount kit, and you put
it in there, and it's got twofirewalls in run in one
cross-connected to each other.
So that way you've gotredundancy built into the
hardware, which is really neatto see.
(11:10):
It was simple things like that.
They introduced some newproducts that weren't really
ready to be shown off yet, andyou'll hear more about those in
the interview that I did, uh,where we walked through
everything that was on displaywith Shaboom, who's just such a
wonderful person and such a goodfriend uh over at Meter who
loves passionately talking aboutwhat they're doing.
So I'm gonna roll Shaboom'sinterview after this, by the
(11:32):
way.
So uh so stay tuned.
But you know, it was it was thatlevel of doing things that make
sense.
You know, one of the things thatthey showed off was this access
point.
It was an IP67 rated accesspoint that allowed you to choose
your antenna patternconfiguration from you know from
the device.
So you could say, hey, right nowI want it to be Omni, or right
(11:52):
now I want it to be, you know,60 by 120 or 60 by 60, whatever
it is.
The theory that that you couldbuild that into the device to
give people the capability toreally have a flexible device
that they could deploy anywhereand everywhere or everywhere,
and make those, you know, thosesoftware changes that would have
a real-world performanceincrease for certain types of
(12:14):
installations like warehouses oryou know, grocery stores or
whatever it is.
So it was the idea that nowthey're coming in, they've
gotten past the point at meterwhere they're really trying to
define what those networks areand what they should be.
And now they're looking attweaking all these different
little things.
So adding in the new accesspoints, AP1, AP2, and their
gateway one, adding in the newAPs, they introduced a wall
(12:36):
plate AP for hospitality, whicheverybody knows that's that's
the key to hospitality, right?
Wall plate AP.
So cranked out a wall plate AP.
I have a hilarious story thatI'm debating sharing about
hospitality and someone that Imet there who was incredible,
and I got to spend some timewith them on the shuttle on the
way over there.
We shared an Uber on the wayback, we touched, you know, we
(12:57):
had some touch points throughoutthe show, and I got to meet this
incredible person.
I completely misunderstood whohe worked for and what he did.
But at the same time, it wasreally neat because I didn't
realize who he worked for.
I thought he worked for somebodymuch, much smaller in scale in
the business that he's in.
And and and I had a great timewith him.
And then when I learned what hereally did, I was like, oh man,
(13:19):
that's awesome.
I probably shouldn't have beenasking stupid questions, but
whatever, we had a good time.
We got we got to know eachother, and that was pretty
great.
Anyway, that's beside the point.
But overall, man, I want to saythat kudos to the meeter up
team, the Sarah's for making ithappen.
Sarah Kwan always goes out ofher way to do something
exceptional.
Sarah Stern for bringing us alltogether and making sure that
we're all on the same page.
(13:39):
Sunil and Neil, I mean, the guysare just killing it.
It's so much fun to watch themenjoy what they're doing.
Joshua and his his incrediblymeticulous approach to hardware.
And and we didn't hear fromCharlie talking about cellular.
That's okay.
I did get some time to spin withMichelle Woods, not Michelle
Brown, Michelle Woods, as I uhaccidentally punched it in the
(14:02):
LinkedIn the wrong way.
But one of the things that stoodout was her part of the
conversation.
And again, I really this is whatI like to hammer on with the
meter stuff, right?
It's I don't care if they buildthe best hardware in the world,
I don't care if they build thebest software in the world.
I everybody can build greathardware, everybody can build
great software.
So I'm just saying, I mean,their stuff's probably really
good, don't get me wrong.
However, that's awesome.
(14:24):
But what it really comes down tois who's putting this in.
How are they installing it?
Why are they installing it?
Where are they installing it?
And the efforts that they haveput into that have been
absolutely exceptional.
Michelle showed off how theywere able to save so much time
by just kitting everything attheir at their place and then
shipping it off to the customer,and not just kitting the
(14:45):
equipment that goes in the rackand having these custom-built
racks using these things calledrack studs that change their
install time from six minutes to90 seconds or less.
You know, simple things likethat that are have a huge
impact.
But then taking access pointsand their antennas and mounting
them to what looked essentiallylooked like a cutting board.
It was an HDPE board, lookedlike a big cutting board.
But they mount the access pointand the antenna and then they
(15:08):
rotate or move the articulatingmount to apply the appropriate
amount of down tilt and yeah,and you know, azimuth on that
antenna so that when it'sinstalled, it's already, it's
already set up, it's alreadycalibrated, it's already ready
to go.
And being able to define whatthe procedure for installation
is and and monitor the way thatthose installations get done,
that to me is where the rubbermeets the road.
(15:29):
Like literally, that's where theequipment gets installed.
So it's an addition to all thegreat stuff that they do, being
able to have it installedexactly how they want it.
Anyway, there you go.
That's I I had to go on and onabout meter up, man, because it
was awesome.
It was so much fun to be there.
I appreciate the invitation tocome out there and spend some
time with them.
It was really great.
It was great to see a you know,a bunch of friends, great to see
some familiar faces, and greatto learn about what meter is
(15:51):
doing.
If you want to learn more aboutthem, obviously, I hope you know
meter is one of the sponsors ofthe Waves Podcast, and we've
always been so happy that theychoose to spend their money with
us and sponsor what we do.
So uh please visit them,meter.com, if you want to learn
more about what they're doing.
Look them up online or drop me amessage, and I'll be happy to
introduce you to anyone over atthe team at Meter.
All right.
So now it's time to dig intowhat's happening.
(16:13):
This is what's happening, what'snew, what's now, what's next.
Mostly what's new for the weekof November 20th through 24th,
2025.
Let's start off by talking aboutT Mobile.
T Mobile is pushing the hybrid 5private 5G uh slicing from F1 to
factories.
T-Mobile's all over the placedoing this stuff.
I don't know if anybody watchedthe F1 race that just happened
in Las Vegas, but some neatstuff that was happening there.
(16:33):
T-Mobile US leaned hard into theenterprise market this week,
positioning its new hybridprivate and 5G models in middle
ground between fully privatenetworks and pure public 5G.
The carrier is combiningnationwide 5G advanced coverage
with network slicing and localedge compute, giving enterprises
dedicated performance withoutbuilding end-to-end private
systems.
At the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prixthis past week, T-Mobile
(16:55):
showcased real slices for firstresponders, allocating up to
five times more resources incongested areas while also
handling point-of-saletransactions and media workflows
on separate logical lanes of thesame network.
Network slicing at its best,staying in their lanes, if you
will.
Although there aren't any lanesin F1, but you know what I mean.
Anyway, analysts say this sharedyet guaranteed approach could
(17:15):
redefine how campuses, ports,and factories buy wireless, not
as a static asset, but as adynamic service with QOS and
security tiers on demand.
And where did that take placethe most?
Like I've mentioned before, thishappened at F1.
Pretty, pretty incredible.
So during race week, severalstrip hotels created ad hoc
creator lounges near track sidefan zones, each with enterprise
grade Wi-Fi and separate SSIDsfor influencers, production
(17:38):
crews, and fans.
Local reporters describe livespeed tests topping over 800
megabit per second down formedia teams uploading 4K clips,
while casual users saw around250 megabit per second with less
than 20 milliseconds latency andcrowd conditions.
Property tech staff said theytuned AP placement and band
steering on the fly because onrace day, man, it was getting
(17:58):
pretty crazy and they had to goout and do some heat maps and
make sure that everything wasroaming the way it was supposed
to.
It's pretty awesome to see thatthat proof of concept, if you
will.
We've already everyone's heardabout network slicing.
We've talked about networkslicing, and essentially, you
know, this is taking one basestation and slicing it up and
giving people the ability toaccess different, you know,
either different resources or orsecured resources on the network
(18:20):
and really slicing it up to givepeople the capacity that they
need.
So very, very cool.
What do we got next?
All right, so Ubiquity hasintroduced something pretty
unique into the industry.
This is called the device bridgeswitch, and it goes along with
their whole product set oftrying to make wireless bridging
easier.
And this time they did somethinga little bit different.
Instead of putting a switchinside the access point, they
(18:43):
put an access point inside theswitch.
This is a compact PoE plusswitch with one 10 gig Ethernet
port and seven two and a halfgig ports, a six gigahertz ready
Wi-Fi 7 bridging integration forseamless high capacity wireless
uplink.
So, what this is is it's aswitch, one of their typical
switches, featuring seven twoand a half gig PoE plus ports
(19:04):
and a single 10 gig PoE plusport, but it has Wi-Fi
integrated into it.
It's got six gig Wi-Fi 7integrated into it.
So you can plug the switch inlike you normally would, but the
switch wirelessly communicatesback to your Wi-Fi network,
which again is pretty unique.
It's running for$299 onubiquity.com or UI.com, uh
(19:25):
UI.com.
It's just, you know, a littlebit different.
It just shows that they'recontinuing to do these creative,
innovative things.
You know, I'm not gonna lie, Iwant one.
I but I don't know what the hellI'm gonna use it for, but I want
one because it seems kind ofcool.
I think I'm gonna buy one andtest it out just to see what it
does.
But kudos to the team over atUbiquity for keeping it fresh.
(19:47):
Next up, oh man, the SpectrumBattle in Europe, right?
In the EU.
A key advisory board to the EU,the Radio Spectrum Policy Group,
known as RSPG, proposed that 540megahertz in the upper six
gigahertz band, which would be6425 to 6960 if you're playing
along at home.
Those should be earmarked formobile operators, not Wi-Fi,
(20:07):
marking a major win for 5Gadvanced and future 6G services.
This is a sharp contrast to theUS, Canada, South Korea, I don't
know, like almost everywhere inthe world, it feels like, which
has opened up that block forWi-Fi 6E and 7.
This didn't go the same way inEurope, and there's a lot of
talk about this online.
So you don't have access tothose same frequencies that we
are using for six gig Wi-Fi inthe States.
(20:30):
Now in Europe, it's a little bitdifferent.
European mobile giants like DortTelecom, Orange, and Vodafone
argued they need that mid-bandspectrum to remain competitive
in 6G deployments and industrialconnectivity, while groups like
Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft,again, pretty much everybody,
lobbied to reserve this forWi-Fi.
Analysts believe the decisioncould tilt Europe towards
(20:50):
cellular heavy architectures forindoor and campus Wi-Fi
networks, forcing Wi-Fi vendorsto focus on that lower 6 gig and
that really congested 5 giglanes while enterprises lean
more on neutral host or private5G for guaranteed performance.
This is a big hit, man.
I mean, this is that not beingable to use the same frequency
space in Europe as you do in theStates.
And it's it's just kind of aloss, right?
(21:12):
If you're using Wi-Fi, you wantto make sure it works the same
way everywhere.
And Europe decided that thatwasn't something that they
wanted to do.
I don't know.
In other news, Berlin quietlylaunched Wilderness of Berlin, a
citywide wildlife sensor networkusing low-power Wi-Fi and other
radios to track foxes, boars,and bird species around park and
(21:33):
rail corridors.
Hundreds of smart camera trapsand audio sensors are being
deployed, connected back viamunicipal mesh and fiber to a
central platform whereecologists and city planners
analyze movement patterns.
That's pretty awesome.
Residents can access a publicdashboard to see where certain
species are most active,blending conservation and civic
tech.
It's pretty cool.
(21:54):
I totally butchered the name.
Wild turn, I don't even I don'tspeak German now, no.
W-I-L-D-T-I-E-R-N-A-H.
Wild turn wild turn?
I don't know.
Someone, where are my Germanfriends when I need them to
explain the Wi-Fi for me?
Anyway.
But if you combine those twostories, man, think about it.
Europe's 60 choice or 6gigahertz choice sets a
(22:15):
long-term trajectory, right?
More licensed cellular forindoor performance, less
unlicensed headroom for Wi-Fi.
At the same time, groups likethe Wildlife Network in Berlin
are showing how creativelow-power Wi-Fi could continue
to matter, you know, not tomention the whole digital divide
thing or getting people accesswhen they need it.
But now they've got this.
I don't want to say they have aloss of spectrum because they
(22:36):
never had it to begin with, butnow they don't get access to the
same spectrum that the rest ofthe world is able to use.
So kind of a bummer for Europe.
Next up, our good, our goodfriends over at Del Oro.
I got to see Sean Morgan thisweek or last week, which is
always makes it a better weekwhen you get to hang out with
Sean.
After this, I'm going to talk alittle bit about her views on
what we saw over at Meeter Up.
(22:58):
But the little bit differentapproach here, let's talk about
some statistics from Del Oro.
Del Oro's latest report showsthat enterprise wireless LAN
market grew 11% year over yearin quarter one of 2025, largely
on the back of that Wi-Fi 7adoption, which already accounts
to for 12% of enterprisewireless LAN units shipped
worldwide.
So we're already hitting 12%number, double-digit numbers for
(23:19):
Wi-Fi 7 in Enterprise WirelessLAN.
In real world trials run byWireless LAN or the WBA with ATT
and some of the other providers,Wi-Fi 7 has nearly doubled the
throughput versus Wi-Fi 60 at 5gig using 40 megahertz channels
and sustained more than a gig at40 feet over 160 megahertz in 6
gig test.
I've seen it 2.9 is the fastestthat I have used it on a phone,
(23:41):
but at WLPC last year, we hitit, we saw it hit over three
gig, which was pretty neat,which also prompted some really
cool things that we're gonna bedoing at WLPC in Phoenix.
So stay tuned for that.
There's gonna be some reallycool speed tests coming out
showing what we're doing withWi-Fi 7.
So it the the hype is of Wi-Fi 7moving in is is really meeting,
you know, the expectations arebeing met, which is which is
(24:03):
pretty cool to see.
So different, differentaggressive competition we're
seeing out there with you know anumber of the different
manufacturers.
And uh Delaware reporting thatthere's a prediction Wi-Fi 7
will surpass 90% of indoor APrevenue share by 2028.
So in two years, it's gonna be90% Wi-Fi 7 with Wi-Fi 8 APs
arriving late that year.
So late 2028 is when Delaware ispredicting the Wi-Fi 8 access
(24:27):
points coming in, but definitelynot uh material impacting
(25:22):
spending until 2029.
So if you're thinking aboutupgrading, you're good to go for
a couple years.
It looks like if you if you'rethinking about making the jump
and you're questioning whetheryou should wait for Wi-Fi 8, no,
man, just deploy.
There's no, I mean, you'regonna, it's what, three years
away?
You're gonna have to swap outtech by then anyway.
There's a lot of talk aboutwhat's gonna be in Wi-Fi 8.
(25:42):
So I'm looking forward to morediscussions on Wi-Fi 8 to really
articulate what it can do, howit can do it, what makes it
stronger, what makes it better.
All right, what else do we havegoing on here?
In in other news, travelers atAustin Bergstrom International
Airport have been postingTikToks and Reddit threads about
an informal power corridor neargates 17 through 21, where new
(26:03):
Wi-Fi 60 and 7 APs and heavyoutlet density apparently line
up perfectly.
Flyers report 600 to 800 megabitper second down and low teens
latency while charging comparedto 150 megabit per second and
more jitter elsewhere throughoutthe terminal.
Airport IT staff respondingcomments hinted at an ongoing
phased upgrade and saiduser-generated speed maps are
(26:23):
being folded into future APplacement decisions.
Ferney Munoz, have you been tothe Austin Bergstrom airport?
Is it you, Ferney, that's beendoing these heat maps?
And in case you don't know whatI'm talking about, go look up
Mr.
Ferney on LinkedIn or on Twitteror on Instagram and realize that
as much of a wireless nerd asyou think you are, Fernay
(26:44):
schedules layovers at airportsjust so he can walk around and
do heat maps at airports.
I don't know how factual thatis.
I know that he does it, but Idon't know if he actually
schedules the time to do it.
I think it's more of a passingtime thing.
Although I would not put it pastFernay to schedule an extra hour
to go do a heat map at anairport, which is kind of funny.
(27:05):
And I wonder, Ferney, we need toget you on the show, man.
How many Wi-Fi 7 deployments andnetworks have you seen out
there?
And have you seen it Chrome?
I don't know.
But if anybody knows, it's Mr.
Fernay.
A couple of other things thatpopped up this week on LinkedIn
that I saw that were pretty coolwas Morse Micro meeting with
GLINET.
And GLINET makes one of myfavorite home devices, my little
(27:26):
router that I carry with meeverywhere that I go.
I love that thing.
The story really started withMorse Micro and GLINET joining
forces to launch the Halo Link1, which is their 80211 AH or
Wi-Fi Halo access point, and thereference platform aimed at
long-range, low-power IoTdeployments, built around Azure
Wave's AWHM593 module, which isthe one that goes inside there,
uh, featuring Morse Micro'sMM6108 Wi-Fi certified Halo
(27:48):
system on a chip, the Halo Link1 combines sub-gig reach over
one kilometer line of sight andtypical test with ultra low
power consumption and supportfor thousands of devices per AP,
which is ideal for agriculture,industrial sites, and large
campuses.
GLINET adds a MediaTech MT7621Adual-core CPU and a 2x2, 2.4 gig
radio, effectively bridging Halobackhaul tradition to
(28:10):
traditional Wi-Fi and Ethernetso that legacy sensors and
controllers can join Halonetworks without a redesign.
This unit's being sampled totier one OEMs and ISPs now.
You can buy it via Mouser for 99bucks is the introductory price.
And this positions it both as anevaluation kit and something
that is completely productionready.
Now, if you look at what they'vedone recently, that's their
(28:32):
that's their Halo Link 1 kit.
We've covered that one before.
But if you look at what theyjust did on their announcements
on LinkedIn, this thing wasreally neat to see just because
it's two really great teams thatare coming together.
And GLINet is just, I mean, theymake really inexpensive
equipment that works reallywell.
And it just it's it seems likeit's very purpose-built.
It does exactly what it'ssupposed to do when it's
(28:53):
supposed to do it.
They're going to be out at CESas well.
But yesterday, or I guess lastweek, is when uh I read about it
yesterday, but it was last week.
They were welcoming the teamover there and they're having
what they call what they called,quote, an in-depth discussion on
strategic collaboration andinnovation in next-gen routers
and IoT connectivity solutions.
They said, quote, it was aproductive and inspiring
(29:14):
exchange.
We look forward to drivinginnovation together with the
Morse Micro team.
That's from GLINET.
So very cool to see GLINET andMorse Micro continue to do what
they're doing.
It's very, very neat to watch.
Now, there was another reallycool announcement from the
Wireless Broadband Alliance.
I know Tiago was out there likeshouting this one from the
rooftops that felt like therewas some excitement in these
posts.
Big announcement.
(29:34):
It says Purple, the B Corp, aglobal leader in guest Wi-Fi and
connectivity platforms, todayannounced a pivotal commitment
to advancing the WirelessBroadband Alliance's open
roaming standard.
This removes the friction forvenues.
And by doing this, Purple isoffering its entry-level guest
Wi-Fi solution, which is calledConnect, free of charge, along
with free open roamingenablement across a venue's
(29:55):
network networks estate.
Now, what this means is that ifyou use Purple, which is a
really cool analytics platformon the back end, you can see how
many people are showing up, howmuch time they spend, guest
tracking, et cetera, et cetera.
If you use that, this issomething that you can add to
Purple to really enhance what itdoes.
So now Purple is not justallowing your onboarding to take
place easier from a captiveportal perspective and giving
(30:17):
you that visibility into who'sdoing what when they're on your
property.
But now, as they add openroaming to that, it takes it a
step further.
It really enables people to flowfrom business to business, from
area to area without having toconnect.
And open roaming uses Passpoint.
And basically what happens isyour phone automatically
recognizes if you have theprofile on it, it automatically
recognizes that you're near anetwork.
(30:38):
It automatically connects, itgets you online.
You don't have to fuss aroundwith passwords and connecting to
SSIDs and whatnot.
It just does what it's supposedto do.
Now, from their press release,it says Purple, global leader in
guest Wi-Fi and connectivity,announced a pivotal commitment
advancing WBA's open roamingstandard.
This initiative is a criticalstep in democratizing access to
the open roaming network,inviting venue owners, network
(30:59):
managers, and industry partnersto expand the secure automated
Wi Fi utility worldwide.
Open roaming is designed to makeconnecting to Wi Fi as seamless
as cellular, leveraging afederated network model to
eliminate repetitive logins anddeliver ubiquitous secure
connectivity.
More than 3,000 open roamingcertificates have been issued,
and over 800 end entities areactively using open roaming
today.
(31:19):
Purple's free connect.
Offering supports this missionby providing the foundation
businesses need to participate,ensuring the benefits of open
roaming are accessible to all.
This is very cool.
It's a great, it's a step in theright direction.
Open roaming has long beentalked about as a really great
way to get people online.
And so we're excited to see thatpurple is jumping on and adding
this to their Connect platform.
(31:39):
And this is definitely going toadvance what the WBA is trying
to do.
So congrats to everybodyinvolved in that.
Something fun I wanted to bringup just because like the
nostalgia's hitting hard.
I mean, this is like nostalgiaweek, right?
After I'm telling you, there wassomething about going to San
Francisco to go to meters eventthat felt super nostalgic.
I don't, I don't, I can't put myfinger on it.
I don't really know what it was,but it was the idea that they
(32:02):
were doing something innovativeand not using anyone else's
technology.
It was them.
Like you could you could picturethe guys like building this, you
could picture the teams puttingit together and throwing out the
playbook and then being in SanFrancisco and the Bay Area.
And it was just it was just agreat throwback.
But I feel like the algorithm isso on point with everything
that's going on.
(32:22):
That I jumped on Twitter and orX for the first time in a long
time, and something that keptpopping up was people that were
posting nostalgic throwbacks toWindows 95 and Windows 3 3.1
3.11.
And it was just so great to goback and look at that and see
pictures of the control paneland see pictures of the way that
(32:44):
the first operating systemslooked and what was great about
them.
And you know, it was someonementioned on on X, they said,
Man, I really miss things beingthis simple.
And the first thing in thecorner was a 32-bit ODBC
connector.
And I was like, Man, I rememberthe first time I realized what
ODBC was, and I used it can toconnect to an access database so
I could plug it into a websiteusing oh my god, what was it
(33:07):
called?
What were those?
The oh man, front page, frontpage web extensions.
Golly, remember those things?
Anyway, it was it was reallycool.
And then I saw you know furtheron it said, if you've ever
configured config sys and autoexit back, we can be friends,
you know, and it would justreally made me think about like
I feel like that was a moment intime that my head goes back to
(33:28):
where I just I remember thecontrol panel, and I remember
the first time I saw it, I waslike, man, this is really cool
with you know the DOS back in,and now Windows was this UI that
you could do things.
And even at that, you know, Isaw Sound Blasters making cards
again, which is crazy.
I mean, just to think aboutSound Blaster, I remember the
first time I opened up my CD ROMkit, the first time I bought a
CD ROM that I could connect intomy computer and how awesome that
(33:52):
was.
Anyway, I hope y'all are feelingas nostalgic about all of it as
I am, but it's just really neatto see the roots of where all of
this came from, and not evenwhere it came from.
I mean, I know it started somuch longer ago than that, but
but to see just the innovationtaking place over the last 40
years has been so dope just towatch.
I mean, it's just been Iremember the first time I got
(34:14):
online, man.
I remember tapping into Vaxclusters, I remember, you know,
dial in, I remember freakingWindSock errors, I remember, you
know, the first time whenNetscape came out, I was like,
God, this is so great.
My CompuServe login, my Prodigylogin, my AOL login.
Oh man.
God, you know, I really wishCompuServe was still running.
(34:35):
That was so much fun to tapinto.
You know, it was that servicewithin a service.
Anyway, I just thought I'd talkabout that real quick.
If you're feeling nostalgic,it's just it's neat sometimes to
go back down memory lane from atechnology perspective.
And I like even at that, I saw apop-up on Instagram where it's
I'm I'm assuming it was AIcreated.
It says, Man, this place looksutterly familiar.
(34:55):
And it was a real life versionof a scene from a video game.
And you know, just recently I'vebeen playing, I've been playing
Call of Duty for the first timein a long time.
Modern Warfare, you know, ModernWarfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3
and World at War.
I've been going through thoseagain, and I've got my kid
beside me, and we're playing thegames and whatever.
And it's like I think back whenI when I open up some of those
(35:17):
maps, it's like I've been there,you know, like I've it's crazy.
And I don't even know, I don'teven I hope this resonates with
someone because like it's justso nuts.
Like I'll fire up in a videogame, and I haven't quote
unquote been there in so long.
But dude, I remember it.
I spent so much time in thatvirtual world.
It's like, dude, imagine walkinginto a real life Doom house.
(35:38):
I mean, maybe someone needs todo that for like a for like it's
CES or like one of these bigevents, they need their entire
booth to be like an old schoolDoom map because I could walk
through that thing in my sleep.
Anyway, I just thought I'd sharethat just because it's there's a
lot of that going on right now.
I thought it was kind ofhilarious.
I can't be the only one, man.
I the algorithms are too onpoint for it just to be
(35:58):
affecting me.
Anyway, drop a drop a note, man,drop a comment.
If you're listening to this,drop a comment on one of the
platforms and tell me if if I'mcrazy or if you actually
remember going back into timeand seeing some of these things.
I it's just awesome.
It's awesome to get nostalgic.
All right, so the last thing I'mgonna leave you with is I'm
(36:20):
gonna publish some of theinterviews that that I did at
Meet Her Up because I don't wantyou to just hear about it from
me.
I'd love for you to hear aboutit from the people that were
there.
And also I'd I'm gonna cut out aspecial edition.
I said earlier that I was gonnafeature her interview after
this, but I'll just drop it as aseparate one.
I want you all to appreciatewhat I was able to appreciate.
So I'm gonna drop an interview Idid with Shaboom who walked me
(36:42):
through every product that theyhad out there.
But real quickly, I'm gonna dropa couple comments here.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonnaplay some of the interviews that
I had at Meter Up so that youcan hear, not just from me, but
from Troy and from Sean aboutwhat we saw at Meter Up and what
made it pretty impactful.
Anyway, with that being said, Ihope you all have a wonderful
week.
This is the Thanksgiving weekhere in the state, so happy
Thanksgiving to everybody.
(37:03):
I hope you have some great timewith your families.
I hope you enjoy some awesomedowntime.
Next week's gonna be hellatricky for me.
I will be out at Amazon at AWSreInvent at the big conference.
We're doing an incredible demoat the Five Guys Burgers at Five
Guys Las Vegas at the GrandCanal Shops.
If you happen to be in Vegas forAWS, please send me a message so
that I can get you registered sothat you can come by and eat a
(37:23):
free burger, and we're gonna beshowing off some really, really
neat stuff that's already beenhinted at.
And I've, you know, the newsrelease has dropped, and it's
some things that I've gotten towork on that are so cool and so
much fun and so creative thatI'm just happy to be a part of
some of these incredible effortsthat we're doing over here at
Eero.
So go take a look at that.
And otherwise, have a wonderfulweek, and I will talk to you all
(37:45):
soon.
Thanks.
See ya.
What's up, y'all?
It's Drew Lins the WirelessNerd, and this is the Waves
Weekly Digest for November 20ththrough 24th, 2025.
This is some new stuff thatwe've seen talking about, but I
want to start off before we getinto any of that and talk about
meter up.
Now, meter up happened this weekand it was a phenomenal event.
I can't say enough about it.
I've had about a week to go overit in my head and think about
(04:27):
what went right and what wentwrong and what I learned and
what I think everybody learned.
And I think overall it was justreally, really great.
You know, I I got to interviewsome of the people there, I got
to talk to some of the peoplethere, I got to, you know, learn
from the leaders that were thereand really appreciate what was
happening at the event.
And I think a couple thingsstand out even now, a week
later.
First and foremost, the factthat it was at Pier 27 at
(04:49):
Fisherman's Wharf in SanFrancisco was really, really
cool.
I mean, you walked in thebuilding, you felt like you were
in San Francisco.
They had these huge doors open,you could look out and see the
sun shining over the bay, andyou say you saw the bay bridge
in the background, you saw theentire skyline just unfold
before your eyes, and it wasjust a great place to be.
(05:09):
And it's been it was veryreminiscent of one of the first
times that I went to the BayArea when I got involved in
technology and growing up inSouth Texas, you know, I didn't
have a lot of access to some ofthe products and the companies
and whatnot.
But I remember the first timegoing out there and I went
dumpster diving just to godumpster diving to say that I
had done it.
I didn't find anything buttrash, but that's a different
story.
But it really reminded me of athrowback to what it was like
(05:32):
when all of the stuff wasstarting, the ISPs were cranking
up, the dot-coms were happening,technology companies were these
incredible things that existedso far away from where I lived
that there was just thispresence, this awe of what was
happening out there.
And when I went out there formeter up, I had a lot of really
good reminiscent feelings andnostalgia about everything.
(05:56):
And I don't know why.
I mean, it just hit me when Isaw the Skyline Trans America
Tower, and you're looking outthere and you're there for a
tech company, and you turn toyour left, and it's this big
open warehouse area, and peopleare walking around sharing
coffee, and all the meteremployees are walking around
their black jackets.
It was just really, it wasreally neat.
And I didn't expect to have thatfeeling when I heard Anil speak
(06:18):
and with the theme of the wholeevent, but it kept creeping up
on me where Anil talked abouthow technology has gotten to
this point where everybody'sjust bolted so much on that
meter's ideas to build from theground up.
Start with something fresh,start with something new, start
with an idea and a concept andbuild it from the ground up
instead of you know aggregatingdifferent companies or different
(06:40):
technology components to put itall together.
And that was such a cool way toharken back to those old days of
people just getting, you know,rolling up their sleeves and
building something brand new forthe sake of building it brand
new.
And that that's shown throughoutthe whole thing.
I mean, it wasn't just about theway that you know the way that
they started the company and andthe ethos that they take for
(07:01):
building the hardware, but italso had to do with why settle
for what is normal today.
You know, one of the funniestmoments was when Joshua, who's
in you know in charge of alltheir hardware, uh comes out and
talks about moving the SFP portsfrom the right hand side to the
left hand side, and he had thismoment where he talked about 1.2
millimeters and two millimetersand the difference between
(07:22):
snagging your shirt on somethingand not, and how all of that
just has to fit perfectly into afaceplate, and now everybody is
going and looking at SFP portsto realize that they do protrude
on every other piece ofequipment just by enough that
you could snag your shirt on it.
But then it was the question ofwhy?
Why would you move the SFP portsover to the left instead of
keeping them on the right?
(07:43):
And it was because they could.
It was because they weren'tthinking traditionally, they
were thinking about what madethe most sense to them.
And really diving deep into thatwas Sunil when he popped up and
he started talking about the waythat they were designing these
networks for desired statenetworking.
And it was this whole change inthought process of the way that
(08:04):
that the network should work.
And you know, a lot of it has todo with with what people are
terming SLAs and QOE and allthese quality of experience, but
it's more about what is it thatyou want from the network?
What do you want the network todo?
And how do you build thehardware and the software so
that the network will just actthe way that it's supposed to
when it's supposed to?
(08:24):
And there was so much of that.
And Sunil talking about you knowhis onboarding experience when
he brings new employees in andabout how he designs this, it
doesn't even design anything.
Sorry, he uses this iPad wherehe draws out how their mentality
is when it comes to buildingthese networks and these devices
and the software.
It was just a really, reallyneat moment.
(08:45):
And when you add on top of that,the throwback of having Bob
Metcalf there, which was justtotally freaking awesome.
I honestly didn't expect him tobe as funny as he was, and it
was just really great for him tobe out there and sharing some
great moments about the way theEthernet was was conceived and
built and why and how and where,and realizing that you're
(09:05):
listening to someone talk aboutan approach to technology that
it's the same approach thatSunil and Anil are taking with
meter.
It was really just really neatto have someone who could be
there who's been there since thebeginning to see how far this
has come and to see people doingthe things that he was doing so
many years ago to build thistechnology and build this
(09:26):
connectivity to really makethings connect.
And I think one of the mainthings that was missing that was
really cool was AI.
It was like it was it wasn'ttalked about.
We didn't talk about AI.
It was like a dirty word almost.
And even Bob Metcalf joked withAnil about AI being a bubble,
and he said he wasn't gonnaanswer that.
And there was a lot of fun,there was a lot of fun back and
(09:47):
forth about it, but it wasn'tthe idea of AI, it was about the
idea of what some semblance ofAI could do for you and do for
your network and do for yourbusiness.
And it was more about that goingback to that desired state
networking of being able to havea network do what it's supposed
to do when it's supposed to doit, and if it's not doing it,
(10:08):
have it automatically figurethat out and then fix itself and
prompt you and say, Hey, this iswhat I did, or hey, this is what
I need to do, but I needapproval to do it.
It was along those lines leadingup to them talking about
building the first fullyautonomous networks in 2027 as
their goal.
And that was so cool because youhad this moment where we're all
sitting there and they werelike, they were talking, I mean,
(10:29):
they were just talking about,they were showing off all the
components they needed to do toor to complete in order to do
what they set out to do, whichis that fully autonomized
network.
Now, speaking of components,they introduced some really cool
hardware that was very simplynamed, which was great.
They had, you know, switch one,two, and three, which were named
S1, S2, and S3.
They had firewall, F1, F2, andF3.
(10:49):
And what was really neat aboutone of their firewalls is they
took two firewall boards andstuck them in the same 19-inch
one RU cabinet or I'm sorry, uhuh rack mount kit, and you put
it in there, and it's got twofirewalls in run in one
cross-connected to each other.
So that way you've gotredundancy built into the
hardware, which is really neatto see.
(11:10):
It was simple things like that.
They introduced some newproducts that weren't really
ready to be shown off yet, andyou'll hear more about those in
the interview that I did, uh,where we walked through
everything that was on displaywith Shaboom, who's just such a
wonderful person and such a goodfriend uh over at Meter who
loves passionately talking aboutwhat they're doing.
So I'm gonna roll Shaboom'sinterview after this, by the
(11:32):
way.
So uh so stay tuned.
But you know, it was it was thatlevel of doing things that make
sense.
You know, one of the things thatthey showed off was this access
point.
It was an IP67 rated accesspoint that allowed you to choose
your antenna patternconfiguration from you know from
the device.
So you could say, hey, right nowI want it to be Omni, or right
(11:52):
now I want it to be, you know,60 by 120 or 60 by 60, whatever
it is.
The theory that that you couldbuild that into the device to
give people the capability toreally have a flexible device
that they could deploy anywhereand everywhere or everywhere,
and make those, you know, thosesoftware changes that would have
a real-world performanceincrease for certain types of
(12:14):
installations like warehouses oryou know, grocery stores or
whatever it is.
So it was the idea that nowthey're coming in, they've
gotten past the point at meterwhere they're really trying to
define what those networks areand what they should be.
And now they're looking attweaking all these different
little things.
So adding in the new accesspoints, AP1, AP2, and their
gateway one, adding in the newAPs, they introduced a wall
(12:36):
plate AP for hospitality, whicheverybody knows that's that's
the key to hospitality, right?
Wall plate AP.
So cranked out a wall plate AP.
I have a hilarious story thatI'm debating sharing about
hospitality and someone that Imet there who was incredible,
and I got to spend some timewith them on the shuttle on the
way over there.
We shared an Uber on the wayback, we touched, you know, we
(12:57):
had some touch points throughoutthe show, and I got to meet this
incredible person.
I completely misunderstood whohe worked for and what he did.
But at the same time, it wasreally neat because I didn't
realize who he worked for.
I thought he worked for somebodymuch, much smaller in scale in
the business that he's in.
And and and I had a great timewith him.
And then when I learned what hereally did, I was like, oh man,
(13:19):
that's awesome.
I probably shouldn't have beenasking stupid questions, but
whatever, we had a good time.
We got we got to know eachother, and that was pretty
great.
Anyway, that's beside the point.
But overall, man, I want to saythat kudos to the meeter up
team, the Sarah's for making ithappen.
Sarah Kwan always goes out ofher way to do something
exceptional.
Sarah Stern for bringing us alltogether and making sure that
we're all on the same page.
(13:39):
Sunil and Neil, I mean, the guysare just killing it.
It's so much fun to watch themenjoy what they're doing.
Joshua and his his incrediblymeticulous approach to hardware.
And and we didn't hear fromCharlie talking about cellular.
That's okay.
I did get some time to spin withMichelle Woods, not Michelle
Brown, Michelle Woods, as I uhaccidentally punched it in the
(14:02):
LinkedIn the wrong way.
But one of the things that stoodout was her part of the
conversation.
And again, I really this is whatI like to hammer on with the
meter stuff, right?
It's I don't care if they buildthe best hardware in the world,
I don't care if they build thebest software in the world.
I everybody can build greathardware, everybody can build
great software.
So I'm just saying, I mean,their stuff's probably really
good, don't get me wrong.
However, that's awesome.
(14:24):
But what it really comes down tois who's putting this in.
How are they installing it?
Why are they installing it?
Where are they installing it?
And the efforts that they haveput into that have been
absolutely exceptional.
Michelle showed off how theywere able to save so much time
by just kitting everything attheir at their place and then
shipping it off to the customer,and not just kitting the
(14:45):
equipment that goes in the rackand having these custom-built
racks using these things calledrack studs that change their
install time from six minutes to90 seconds or less.
You know, simple things likethat that are have a huge
impact.
But then taking access pointsand their antennas and mounting
them to what looked essentiallylooked like a cutting board.
It was an HDPE board, lookedlike a big cutting board.
But they mount the access pointand the antenna and then they
(15:08):
rotate or move the articulatingmount to apply the appropriate
amount of down tilt and yeah,and you know, azimuth on that
antenna so that when it'sinstalled, it's already, it's
already set up, it's alreadycalibrated, it's already ready
to go.
And being able to define whatthe procedure for installation
is and and monitor the way thatthose installations get done,
that to me is where the rubbermeets the road.
(15:29):
Like literally, that's where theequipment gets installed.
So it's an addition to all thegreat stuff that they do, being
able to have it installedexactly how they want it.
Anyway, there you go.
That's I I had to go on and onabout meter up, man, because it
was awesome.
It was so much fun to be there.
I appreciate the invitation tocome out there and spend some
time with them.
It was really great.
It was great to see a you know,a bunch of friends, great to see
some familiar faces, and greatto learn about what meter is
(15:51):
doing.
If you want to learn more aboutthem, obviously, I hope you know
meter is one of the sponsors ofthe Waves Podcast, and we've
always been so happy that theychoose to spend their money with
us and sponsor what we do.
So uh please visit them,meter.com, if you want to learn
more about what they're doing.
Look them up online or drop me amessage, and I'll be happy to
introduce you to anyone over atthe team at Meter.
All right.
So now it's time to dig intowhat's happening.
(16:13):
This is what's happening, what'snew, what's now, what's next.
Mostly what's new for the weekof November 20th through 24th,
2025.
Let's start off by talking aboutT Mobile.
T Mobile is pushing the hybrid 5private 5G uh slicing from F1 to
factories.
T-Mobile's all over the placedoing this stuff.
I don't know if anybody watchedthe F1 race that just happened
in Las Vegas, but some neatstuff that was happening there.
(16:33):
T-Mobile US leaned hard into theenterprise market this week,
positioning its new hybridprivate and 5G models in middle
ground between fully privatenetworks and pure public 5G.
The carrier is combiningnationwide 5G advanced coverage
with network slicing and localedge compute, giving enterprises
dedicated performance withoutbuilding end-to-end private
systems.
At the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prixthis past week, T-Mobile
(16:55):
showcased real slices for firstresponders, allocating up to
five times more resources incongested areas while also
handling point-of-saletransactions and media workflows
on separate logical lanes of thesame network.
Network slicing at its best,staying in their lanes, if you
will.
Although there aren't any lanesin F1, but you know what I mean.
Anyway, analysts say this sharedyet guaranteed approach could
(17:15):
redefine how campuses, ports,and factories buy wireless, not
as a static asset, but as adynamic service with QOS and
security tiers on demand.
And where did that take placethe most?
Like I've mentioned before, thishappened at F1.
Pretty, pretty incredible.
So during race week, severalstrip hotels created ad hoc
creator lounges near track sidefan zones, each with enterprise
grade Wi-Fi and separate SSIDsfor influencers, production
(17:38):
crews, and fans.
Local reporters describe livespeed tests topping over 800
megabit per second down formedia teams uploading 4K clips,
while casual users saw around250 megabit per second with less
than 20 milliseconds latency andcrowd conditions.
Property tech staff said theytuned AP placement and band
steering on the fly because onrace day, man, it was getting
(17:58):
pretty crazy and they had to goout and do some heat maps and
make sure that everything wasroaming the way it was supposed
to.
It's pretty awesome to see thatthat proof of concept, if you
will.
We've already everyone's heardabout network slicing.
We've talked about networkslicing, and essentially, you
know, this is taking one basestation and slicing it up and
giving people the ability toaccess different, you know,
either different resources or orsecured resources on the network
(18:20):
and really slicing it up to givepeople the capacity that they
need.
So very, very cool.
What do we got next?
All right, so Ubiquity hasintroduced something pretty
unique into the industry.
This is called the device bridgeswitch, and it goes along with
their whole product set oftrying to make wireless bridging
easier.
And this time they did somethinga little bit different.
Instead of putting a switchinside the access point, they
(18:43):
put an access point inside theswitch.
This is a compact PoE plusswitch with one 10 gig Ethernet
port and seven two and a halfgig ports, a six gigahertz ready
Wi-Fi 7 bridging integration forseamless high capacity wireless
uplink.
So, what this is is it's aswitch, one of their typical
switches, featuring seven twoand a half gig PoE plus ports
(19:04):
and a single 10 gig PoE plusport, but it has Wi-Fi
integrated into it.
It's got six gig Wi-Fi 7integrated into it.
So you can plug the switch inlike you normally would, but the
switch wirelessly communicatesback to your Wi-Fi network,
which again is pretty unique.
It's running for$299 onubiquity.com or UI.com, uh
(19:25):
UI.com.
It's just, you know, a littlebit different.
It just shows that they'recontinuing to do these creative,
innovative things.
You know, I'm not gonna lie, Iwant one.
I but I don't know what the hellI'm gonna use it for, but I want
one because it seems kind ofcool.
I think I'm gonna buy one andtest it out just to see what it
does.
But kudos to the team over atUbiquity for keeping it fresh.
(19:47):
Next up, oh man, the SpectrumBattle in Europe, right?
In the EU.
A key advisory board to the EU,the Radio Spectrum Policy Group,
known as RSPG, proposed that 540megahertz in the upper six
gigahertz band, which would be6425 to 6960 if you're playing
along at home.
Those should be earmarked formobile operators, not Wi-Fi,
(20:07):
marking a major win for 5Gadvanced and future 6G services.
This is a sharp contrast to theUS, Canada, South Korea, I don't
know, like almost everywhere inthe world, it feels like, which
has opened up that block forWi-Fi 6E and 7.
This didn't go the same way inEurope, and there's a lot of
talk about this online.
So you don't have access tothose same frequencies that we
are using for six gig Wi-Fi inthe States.
(20:30):
Now in Europe, it's a little bitdifferent.
European mobile giants like DortTelecom, Orange, and Vodafone
argued they need that mid-bandspectrum to remain competitive
in 6G deployments and industrialconnectivity, while groups like
Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft,again, pretty much everybody,
lobbied to reserve this forWi-Fi.
Analysts believe the decisioncould tilt Europe towards
(20:50):
cellular heavy architectures forindoor and campus Wi-Fi
networks, forcing Wi-Fi vendorsto focus on that lower 6 gig and
that really congested 5 giglanes while enterprises lean
more on neutral host or private5G for guaranteed performance.
This is a big hit, man.
I mean, this is that not beingable to use the same frequency
space in Europe as you do in theStates.
And it's it's just kind of aloss, right?
(21:12):
If you're using Wi-Fi, you wantto make sure it works the same
way everywhere.
And Europe decided that thatwasn't something that they
wanted to do.
I don't know.
In other news, Berlin quietlylaunched Wilderness of Berlin, a
citywide wildlife sensor networkusing low-power Wi-Fi and other
radios to track foxes, boars,and bird species around park and
(21:33):
rail corridors.
Hundreds of smart camera trapsand audio sensors are being
deployed, connected back viamunicipal mesh and fiber to a
central platform whereecologists and city planners
analyze movement patterns.
That's pretty awesome.
Residents can access a publicdashboard to see where certain
species are most active,blending conservation and civic
tech.
It's pretty cool.
(21:54):
I totally butchered the name.
Wild turn, I don't even I don'tspeak German now, no.
W-I-L-D-T-I-E-R-N-A-H.
Wild turn wild turn?
I don't know.
Someone, where are my Germanfriends when I need them to
explain the Wi-Fi for me?
Anyway.
But if you combine those twostories, man, think about it.
Europe's 60 choice or 6gigahertz choice sets a
(22:15):
long-term trajectory, right?
More licensed cellular forindoor performance, less
unlicensed headroom for Wi-Fi.
At the same time, groups likethe Wildlife Network in Berlin
are showing how creativelow-power Wi-Fi could continue
to matter, you know, not tomention the whole digital divide
thing or getting people accesswhen they need it.
But now they've got this.
I don't want to say they have aloss of spectrum because they
(22:36):
never had it to begin with, butnow they don't get access to the
same spectrum that the rest ofthe world is able to use.
So kind of a bummer for Europe.
Next up, our good, our goodfriends over at Del Oro.
I got to see Sean Morgan thisweek or last week, which is
always makes it a better weekwhen you get to hang out with
Sean.
After this, I'm going to talk alittle bit about her views on
what we saw over at Meeter Up.
(22:58):
But the little bit differentapproach here, let's talk about
some statistics from Del Oro.
Del Oro's latest report showsthat enterprise wireless LAN
market grew 11% year over yearin quarter one of 2025, largely
on the back of that Wi-Fi 7adoption, which already accounts
to for 12% of enterprisewireless LAN units shipped
worldwide.
So we're already hitting 12%number, double-digit numbers for
(23:19):
Wi-Fi 7 in Enterprise WirelessLAN.
In real world trials run byWireless LAN or the WBA with ATT
and some of the other providers,Wi-Fi 7 has nearly doubled the
throughput versus Wi-Fi 60 at 5gig using 40 megahertz channels
and sustained more than a gig at40 feet over 160 megahertz in 6
gig test.
I've seen it 2.9 is the fastestthat I have used it on a phone,
(23:41):
but at WLPC last year, we hitit, we saw it hit over three
gig, which was pretty neat,which also prompted some really
cool things that we're gonna bedoing at WLPC in Phoenix.
So stay tuned for that.
There's gonna be some reallycool speed tests coming out
showing what we're doing withWi-Fi 7.
So it the the hype is of Wi-Fi 7moving in is is really meeting,
you know, the expectations arebeing met, which is which is
(24:03):
pretty cool to see.
So different, differentaggressive competition we're
seeing out there with you know anumber of the different
manufacturers.
And uh Delaware reporting thatthere's a prediction Wi-Fi 7
will surpass 90% of indoor APrevenue share by 2028.
So in two years, it's gonna be90% Wi-Fi 7 with Wi-Fi 8 APs
arriving late that year.
So late 2028 is when Delaware ispredicting the Wi-Fi 8 access
(24:27):
points coming in, but definitelynot uh material impacting
(25:22):
spending until 2029.
So if you're thinking aboutupgrading, you're good to go for
a couple years.
It looks like if you if you'rethinking about making the jump
and you're questioning whetheryou should wait for Wi-Fi 8, no,
man, just deploy.
There's no, I mean, you'regonna, it's what, three years
away?
You're gonna have to swap outtech by then anyway.
There's a lot of talk aboutwhat's gonna be in Wi-Fi 8.
(25:42):
So I'm looking forward to morediscussions on Wi-Fi 8 to really
articulate what it can do, howit can do it, what makes it
stronger, what makes it better.
All right, what else do we havegoing on here?
In in other news, travelers atAustin Bergstrom International
Airport have been postingTikToks and Reddit threads about
an informal power corridor neargates 17 through 21, where new
(26:03):
Wi-Fi 60 and 7 APs and heavyoutlet density apparently line
up perfectly.
Flyers report 600 to 800 megabitper second down and low teens
latency while charging comparedto 150 megabit per second and
more jitter elsewhere throughoutthe terminal.
Airport IT staff respondingcomments hinted at an ongoing
phased upgrade and saiduser-generated speed maps are
(26:23):
being folded into future APplacement decisions.
Ferney Munoz, have you been tothe Austin Bergstrom airport?
Is it you, Ferney, that's beendoing these heat maps?
And in case you don't know whatI'm talking about, go look up
Mr.
Ferney on LinkedIn or on Twitteror on Instagram and realize that
as much of a wireless nerd asyou think you are, Fernay
(26:44):
schedules layovers at airportsjust so he can walk around and
do heat maps at airports.
I don't know how factual thatis.
I know that he does it, but Idon't know if he actually
schedules the time to do it.
I think it's more of a passingtime thing.
Although I would not put it pastFernay to schedule an extra hour
to go do a heat map at anairport, which is kind of funny.
(27:05):
And I wonder, Ferney, we need toget you on the show, man.
How many Wi-Fi 7 deployments andnetworks have you seen out
there?
And have you seen it Chrome?
I don't know.
But if anybody knows, it's Mr.
Fernay.
A couple of other things thatpopped up this week on LinkedIn
that I saw that were pretty coolwas Morse Micro meeting with
GLINET.
And GLINET makes one of myfavorite home devices, my little
(27:26):
router that I carry with meeverywhere that I go.
I love that thing.
The story really started withMorse Micro and GLINET joining
forces to launch the Halo Link1, which is their 80211 AH or
Wi-Fi Halo access point, and thereference platform aimed at
long-range, low-power IoTdeployments, built around Azure
Wave's AWHM593 module, which isthe one that goes inside there,
uh, featuring Morse Micro'sMM6108 Wi-Fi certified Halo
(27:48):
system on a chip, the Halo Link1 combines sub-gig reach over
one kilometer line of sight andtypical test with ultra low
power consumption and supportfor thousands of devices per AP,
which is ideal for agriculture,industrial sites, and large
campuses.
GLINET adds a MediaTech MT7621Adual-core CPU and a 2x2, 2.4 gig
radio, effectively bridging Halobackhaul tradition to
(28:10):
traditional Wi-Fi and Ethernetso that legacy sensors and
controllers can join Halonetworks without a redesign.
This unit's being sampled totier one OEMs and ISPs now.
You can buy it via Mouser for 99bucks is the introductory price.
And this positions it both as anevaluation kit and something
that is completely productionready.
Now, if you look at what they'vedone recently, that's their
(28:32):
that's their Halo Link 1 kit.
We've covered that one before.
But if you look at what theyjust did on their announcements
on LinkedIn, this thing wasreally neat to see just because
it's two really great teams thatare coming together.
And GLINet is just, I mean, theymake really inexpensive
equipment that works reallywell.
And it just it's it seems likeit's very purpose-built.
It does exactly what it'ssupposed to do when it's
(28:53):
supposed to do it.
They're going to be out at CESas well.
But yesterday, or I guess lastweek, is when uh I read about it
yesterday, but it was last week.
They were welcoming the teamover there and they're having
what they call what they called,quote, an in-depth discussion on
strategic collaboration andinnovation in next-gen routers
and IoT connectivity solutions.
They said, quote, it was aproductive and inspiring
(29:14):
exchange.
We look forward to drivinginnovation together with the
Morse Micro team.
That's from GLINET.
So very cool to see GLINET andMorse Micro continue to do what
they're doing.
It's very, very neat to watch.
Now, there was another reallycool announcement from the
Wireless Broadband Alliance.
I know Tiago was out there likeshouting this one from the
rooftops that felt like therewas some excitement in these
posts.
Big announcement.
(29:34):
It says Purple, the B Corp, aglobal leader in guest Wi-Fi and
connectivity platforms, todayannounced a pivotal commitment
to advancing the WirelessBroadband Alliance's open
roaming standard.
This removes the friction forvenues.
And by doing this, Purple isoffering its entry-level guest
Wi-Fi solution, which is calledConnect, free of charge, along
with free open roamingenablement across a venue's
(29:55):
network networks estate.
Now, what this means is that ifyou use Purple, which is a
really cool analytics platformon the back end, you can see how
many people are showing up, howmuch time they spend, guest
tracking, et cetera, et cetera.
If you use that, this issomething that you can add to
Purple to really enhance what itdoes.
So now Purple is not justallowing your onboarding to take
place easier from a captiveportal perspective and giving
(30:17):
you that visibility into who'sdoing what when they're on your
property.
But now, as they add openroaming to that, it takes it a
step further.
It really enables people to flowfrom business to business, from
area to area without having toconnect.
And open roaming uses Passpoint.
And basically what happens isyour phone automatically
recognizes if you have theprofile on it, it automatically
recognizes that you're near anetwork.
(30:38):
It automatically connects, itgets you online.
You don't have to fuss aroundwith passwords and connecting to
SSIDs and whatnot.
It just does what it's supposedto do.
Now, from their press release,it says Purple, global leader in
guest Wi-Fi and connectivity,announced a pivotal commitment
advancing WBA's open roamingstandard.
This initiative is a criticalstep in democratizing access to
the open roaming network,inviting venue owners, network
(30:59):
managers, and industry partnersto expand the secure automated
Wi Fi utility worldwide.
Open roaming is designed to makeconnecting to Wi Fi as seamless
as cellular, leveraging afederated network model to
eliminate repetitive logins anddeliver ubiquitous secure
connectivity.
More than 3,000 open roamingcertificates have been issued,
and over 800 end entities areactively using open roaming
today.
(31:19):
Purple's free connect.
Offering supports this missionby providing the foundation
businesses need to participate,ensuring the benefits of open
roaming are accessible to all.
This is very cool.
It's a great, it's a step in theright direction.
Open roaming has long beentalked about as a really great
way to get people online.
And so we're excited to see thatpurple is jumping on and adding
this to their Connect platform.
(31:39):
And this is definitely going toadvance what the WBA is trying
to do.
So congrats to everybodyinvolved in that.
Something fun I wanted to bringup just because like the
nostalgia's hitting hard.
I mean, this is like nostalgiaweek, right?
After I'm telling you, there wassomething about going to San
Francisco to go to meters eventthat felt super nostalgic.
I don't, I don't, I can't put myfinger on it.
I don't really know what it was,but it was the idea that they
(32:02):
were doing something innovativeand not using anyone else's
technology.
It was them.
Like you could you could picturethe guys like building this, you
could picture the teams puttingit together and throwing out the
playbook and then being in SanFrancisco and the Bay Area.
And it was just it was just agreat throwback.
But I feel like the algorithm isso on point with everything
that's going on.
(32:22):
That I jumped on Twitter and orX for the first time in a long
time, and something that keptpopping up was people that were
posting nostalgic throwbacks toWindows 95 and Windows 3 3.1
3.11.
And it was just so great to goback and look at that and see
pictures of the control paneland see pictures of the way that
(32:44):
the first operating systemslooked and what was great about
them.
And you know, it was someonementioned on on X, they said,
Man, I really miss things beingthis simple.
And the first thing in thecorner was a 32-bit ODBC
connector.
And I was like, Man, I rememberthe first time I realized what
ODBC was, and I used it can toconnect to an access database so
I could plug it into a websiteusing oh my god, what was it
(33:07):
called?
What were those?
The oh man, front page, frontpage web extensions.
Golly, remember those things?
Anyway, it was it was reallycool.
And then I saw you know furtheron it said, if you've ever
configured config sys and autoexit back, we can be friends,
you know, and it would justreally made me think about like
I feel like that was a moment intime that my head goes back to
(33:28):
where I just I remember thecontrol panel, and I remember
the first time I saw it, I waslike, man, this is really cool
with you know the DOS back in,and now Windows was this UI that
you could do things.
And even at that, you know, Isaw Sound Blasters making cards
again, which is crazy.
I mean, just to think aboutSound Blaster, I remember the
first time I opened up my CD ROMkit, the first time I bought a
CD ROM that I could connect intomy computer and how awesome that
(33:52):
was.
Anyway, I hope y'all are feelingas nostalgic about all of it as
I am, but it's just really neatto see the roots of where all of
this came from, and not evenwhere it came from.
I mean, I know it started somuch longer ago than that, but
but to see just the innovationtaking place over the last 40
years has been so dope just towatch.
I mean, it's just been Iremember the first time I got
(34:14):
online, man.
I remember tapping into Vaxclusters, I remember, you know,
dial in, I remember freakingWindSock errors, I remember, you
know, the first time whenNetscape came out, I was like,
God, this is so great.
My CompuServe login, my Prodigylogin, my AOL login.
Oh man.
God, you know, I really wishCompuServe was still running.
(34:35):
That was so much fun to tapinto.
You know, it was that servicewithin a service.
Anyway, I just thought I'd talkabout that real quick.
If you're feeling nostalgic,it's just it's neat sometimes to
go back down memory lane from atechnology perspective.
And I like even at that, I saw apop-up on Instagram where it's
I'm I'm assuming it was AIcreated.
It says, Man, this place looksutterly familiar.
(34:55):
And it was a real life versionof a scene from a video game.
And you know, just recently I'vebeen playing, I've been playing
Call of Duty for the first timein a long time.
Modern Warfare, you know, ModernWarfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3
and World at War.
I've been going through thoseagain, and I've got my kid
beside me, and we're playing thegames and whatever.
And it's like I think back whenI when I open up some of those
(35:17):
maps, it's like I've been there,you know, like I've it's crazy.
And I don't even know, I don'teven I hope this resonates with
someone because like it's justso nuts.
Like I'll fire up in a videogame, and I haven't quote
unquote been there in so long.
But dude, I remember it.
I spent so much time in thatvirtual world.
It's like, dude, imagine walkinginto a real life Doom house.
(35:38):
I mean, maybe someone needs todo that for like a for like it's
CES or like one of these bigevents, they need their entire
booth to be like an old schoolDoom map because I could walk
through that thing in my sleep.
Anyway, I just thought I'd sharethat just because it's there's a
lot of that going on right now.
I thought it was kind ofhilarious.
I can't be the only one, man.
I the algorithms are too onpoint for it just to be
(35:58):
affecting me.
Anyway, drop a drop a note, man,drop a comment.
If you're listening to this,drop a comment on one of the
platforms and tell me if if I'mcrazy or if you actually
remember going back into timeand seeing some of these things.
I it's just awesome.
It's awesome to get nostalgic.
All right, so the last thing I'mgonna leave you with is I'm
(36:20):
gonna publish some of theinterviews that that I did at
Meet Her Up because I don't wantyou to just hear about it from
me.
I'd love for you to hear aboutit from the people that were
there.
And also I'd I'm gonna cut out aspecial edition.
I said earlier that I was gonnafeature her interview after
this, but I'll just drop it as aseparate one.
I want you all to appreciatewhat I was able to appreciate.
So I'm gonna drop an interview Idid with Shaboom who walked me
(36:42):
through every product that theyhad out there.
But real quickly, I'm gonna dropa couple comments here.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonnaplay some of the interviews that
I had at Meter Up so that youcan hear, not just from me, but
from Troy and from Sean aboutwhat we saw at Meter Up and what
made it pretty impactful.
Anyway, with that being said, Ihope you all have a wonderful
week.
This is the Thanksgiving weekhere in the state, so happy
Thanksgiving to everybody.
(37:03):
I hope you have some great timewith your families.
I hope you enjoy some awesomedowntime.
Next week's gonna be hellatricky for me.
I will be out at Amazon at AWSreInvent at the big conference.
We're doing an incredible demoat the Five Guys Burgers at Five
Guys Las Vegas at the GrandCanal Shops.
If you happen to be in Vegas forAWS, please send me a message so
that I can get you registered sothat you can come by and eat a
(37:23):
free burger, and we're gonna beshowing off some really, really
neat stuff that's already beenhinted at.
And I've, you know, the newsrelease has dropped, and it's
some things that I've gotten towork on that are so cool and so
much fun and so creative thatI'm just happy to be a part of
some of these incredible effortsthat we're doing over here at
Eero.
So go take a look at that.
And otherwise, have a wonderfulweek, and I will talk to you all
(37:45):
soon.
Thanks.
See ya.
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