December 12, 2025 • 27 mins
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 small sites into first-class cloud citizens, then jump into Kiro, an AI-driven IDE that makes rapid prototyping feel effortless. A standout moment: teens using microphones and servos to drive a robotic hand that signs in real time, a reminder that accessible AI tooling can move ideas from spark to shipping. We also test the cultural headwinds—why younger folks view AI as wasteful—and explore practical paths toward efficiency, cleaner power, and responsible scaling without losing the productivity gains many of us rely on every day.
On the enterprise front, HPE’s dual‑mode Wi‑Fi 7 access points promise real buyer protection by letting teams pivot between Aruba Central and Juniper Mist without forklift swaps. Meanwhile, BEAD funding loosens letter‑of‑credit rules but collides with a new White House order tying eligibility to state AI policy, adding uncertainty for WISPs, co‑ops, and integrators trying to plan builds. From the show floor, the subtle star was networking: AWS Interconnect’s multi‑cloud links and unified DNS hint at a future where campus Wi‑Fi feeds smart paths into whichever cloud edge hosts your app. Add Ubiquiti’s UniFi 5G Max lineup and 5G becomes a serious primary or failover WAN that still lives inside familiar management. We close by charting Wi‑Fi 8’s coordinated multi‑AP vision—CTDMA, better roaming, and predictable latency—and where it will feel real first.
If this mix of hands-on stories, practical architectures, and straight talk on policy helped, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review. Your take: is dual‑mode Wi‑Fi 7 meaningful buyer protection or just marketing hedge?
Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks!
🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
What's up, everybody?
It's Drew Lentz, the WirelessNerd, and it is December 2025.
I just got back from a week outin Las Vegas at AWS reInvent.
What an incredible show.
You know, I got to work on somereally fun projects, obviously
showcasing the five guys' burgerjoint that was out there.
Posted some really cool videoson LinkedIn.
One of the things that just mademe feel really awesome was as
(01:22):
soon as I walked in on Mondaymorning to start to get ready to
set up our demo for AWSreInvent.
Ed, the franchisee, walked outand said, Drew, are you ready to
make an ass out of yourself?
And I am always ready to make anass out of myself, just so you
know.
It just depends on what levelwe're talking about.
And in this case, he wanted meto compete against one of his
(01:42):
employees and go head to head tosee who could smash a 50-pound
bag of potatoes into Frenchfries faster, myself or Mikey?
Mikey won, no shocker there.
But you know, what really feltgood was being a part of his
team.
I put on the hat, I put on theshirt, I smashed some potatoes.
It was a really good time.
(02:02):
And, you know, beingcustomer-centric and customer
obsessed and customer driven andall those other things is
something that I feel like comesmaybe a little bit naturally to
me.
I love to get knee deep.
I live to get in the weeds,learn about people's projects,
learn about their businesses,and really have a good time
experiencing what theyexperience so that way I can
craft a solution for them thatworks at every level of what
(02:23):
they need it to.
So that was really fun.
I'm glad that I got a chance togo out there and do that.
Okay, so all that being said,you know, we showed off a really
cool thing.
I gave a little bit of a previewof it last week, and that was
the ability to connect Eerodirectly to AWS using site to
site VPN and using the gateway,the transit gateway to connect
(02:45):
different sites into AWS Cloud.
It was really neat because Idon't come from the AWS cloud
background.
I come from the Wi-Fibackground.
So learning a little bit aboutAWS networking and the way the
transit gateway works and theway that site-to-site VPN works
was really neat and a lot offun.
And I know a lot of you are AWSnerds, so it's fantastic to dip
my toes into your part of theworld.
(03:05):
And I had a really good timedoing it.
ReInvent was great.
I got to walk around the showfloor, got to meet the team from
Leo and see what they were doingwith satellite services.
I had a really, a really funtime.
One of the things that I didthat I absolutely loved was I
got the chance to go sit downfor about two hours on Monday
morning, and I got to get prettyheavy into Kiro.
(03:27):
And Kiro is an IDE forprogramming that brings together
all these amazing AI tools intoone spot, and it helps you
develop things without reallyhaving to know a lot of the
language behind it.
Now, obviously, super helpful ifyou've got a background in
programming and design, but whatit allowed me to do was quickly
iterate, quickly make, quicklydesign, and do the whole vibe
(03:49):
coding thing at a level I hadnever seen before.
So shout out to the Kiro teamfor the tool that they've put
together.
It was so much fun.
And I walked away just like akid in a candy store.
It was it was awesome.
I just I had such a good timedoing it.
So if you get a chance to usesome of these tools, I mean
there's a lot of really cool AIprogramming tools that are out
there, and Kiro was really,really fun to interface with.
(04:12):
So I went from doing that to alittle area that they had at
reInvent, which I thought wasreally cool, which is where they
took students who had nobackground in programming or
development, and they asked themto come up with an idea or an
app or an application of somesort that they could use to, you
know, to express themselves orchange the world or whatever.
(04:33):
And there was this really neatdisplay of all these different
things that had built by thathad been built by teenagers.
And the one that I liked themost was they had this robotic
hand, and what it did is in realtime, it took it basically
transcribe I don't even I don'tthink transcribed is the right
word, but it it would listenwith a microphone, and in real
time it would translate that tosign language using a robotic
(04:54):
hand.
And I thought that was so coolthat you could, you know, take a
kid who doesn't know anythingabout development, anything
about programming, but they knowthat robotic hands exist and
they know that they can use AIto build these tools, and they
cobbled those two thingstogether and they made this
really impactful product.
So that was really neat to see.
But overall, I mean the ideathat that the cloud, quote
(05:15):
unquote, that big cloud thing inthe, you know, in the ether, is
going to enable so much uhinnovative creativity by giving
people the ability to harness AIat these huge levels is pretty
insane.
Now, I gotta say, you know, it'shaving these conversations with
my daughter, she's 13, is alwaysfascinating because I feel like
(05:37):
her generation and thegeneration that's in middle
school going into high schoolright now is really not a fan of
AI.
They, you know, nothing good tosay.
I think about something thatshe, I don't know where she got
the quote, but she always talksabout two bottles of water that
every time you use AI, itconsumes two bottles of water.
And I've, you know, it sticks inmy head.
So every time I try like fire upperplexity or fire up Claude or
(06:00):
whatever it is, I think abouttwo bottles of water.
Now I don't know if that's trueor not.
Maybe someone can fact checkthat, but it's the idea and the
sentiment that AI is beinglooked at from different
generations as a negative to somany things.
And I just I understand the landstuff and I understand what's
happening in Louisiana and thedata centers and all these
(06:21):
things that are consuming all ofthe things.
And I just have faith that maybenow that's what's happening, but
in the future we're gonna finddifferent and better and more
efficient ways to power, tooperate, to run these data
centers so that AI becomesbetter and less straining on you
know on all the naturalresources around it.
(06:43):
But either way, I gotta say I'ma fan.
I mean, some a lot of the stuffthat I do every day, I rely on
AI tools to work with, and it'sso much fun.
So if you haven't, you know,drank the Kool-Aid yet and you
haven't gotten involved in doingsome some programming, some vibe
coding, you know, whatever itis, whether it's using Adobe
Lightroom or whether it's usingvibe coding or Kiro or you know,
(07:04):
autofocus on cameras, like I,you know, whatever it is,
there's so much AI that'shappening right now, and the way
that that works its way into ourindustry in the wireless and
networking space, I think isfascinating.
That's you know, meter up hadtheir whole thing about what
they're doing, and now there's alot of stuff that's happening
that people are gonna seesurfaced as the way that AI is
working into networking.
So, anyway, that's my AI rantfor the day.
(07:25):
I hate to sound like you know,the person says that that
buzzword over and over and overagain, but I just I'm
increasingly getting moreimpressed every day with what's
going on, and I'm not on theside that's a hater, and I'm not
on the side that's a superfanboy.
I'm in the middle from theusability perspective.
So I thought I'd shed some lighton that.
This week's Waves theme is Wi-Fiis getting more dual, more AI
(07:49):
driven, and more funded.
If you can navigate the shiftingrules that decide who is
actually getting those Bdollars, lots of things that are
happening there.
So let's start off with the HPEdual mode Wi-Fi 7 APs.
This is Mist and Central comingtogether on the same hardware.
HPE used its Discoverannouncements to roll out Wi-Fi
7 access points that can beonboarded into either HPE Ruba
(08:10):
Networking Central or into theJuniper Mist Cloud with the same
hardware able to flip betweencontrol planes as customer
strategy changes.
This pitch is labeled as quoteunquote buyer protection.
Invest once in Wi-Fi 7 radiosand AI ready silicone, then
decide later whether yourlong-term home is Aruba Central
stack or Miss Marvice driven AIops instead of being locked into
(08:31):
one controller ecosystem.
From an enterprise and MSPperspective, this directly
attacks one of the biggestbarriers to switching vendors,
which is the cost of forklift APswaps just to change management
platforms.
It also signals how serious HPEis about integrating Juniper
Mist acquisition and making thathappen quickly, with plans to
move Mist's AI large experiencemodel and Marvus Assistant into
(08:52):
HP Networking Central whilepushing Aruba AI features into
Mist over the next year.
My take on this is that this isthe first credible dual mode AP
story at scale, and it's goingto show up in RFPs as a hedge
against buyer's remorse.
I mean, a lot of people havebeen wondering how this is going
to work.
Should they buy HPE?
Should they buy Aruba?
Should they buy Juniper?
Should they buy Cisco?
Should they buy Eero?
(09:12):
Should they buy, you know,everyone's trying to question
what it is that they're buying.
And at least for this storybetween Juniper Mist and HPE
Aruba and whatever the name ofall of that is, this is an
interesting time.
This, the the interestingtension is going to be how
channel partners position thiswhen each side, Aruba, you know,
versus Mist, still want to ownthe account relationship long
(09:33):
term.
I wonder what that's gonna looklike.
I got dogs park in thebackground.
That's okay.
We're just gonna keep rolling.
So it's fascinating to thinkabout how this is going to
affect not just the channel, butthe end users as well.
All right, let's talk about Bedefunding, the letter of credit
relief and some of the newgotchas.
So NTIA's July 2025 programmaticwaiver finally loosened one of
(09:55):
the nastiest constraints inBede, which is the letter of
credit requirement that hadeffectively shut out a lot of
smaller community-focusedproviders.
This update lets awardees usebanks that are quote unquote
well capitalized or rated BBBminus or higher by a recognized
rating agency rather thanrelying on a very narrow slice
of institutions.
And this allows the size of theletter of credit to ratchet down
(10:18):
as a project hits deploymentmilestones.
This is huge because before youhad to have this crazy letter of
credit from just a very fewamount of agencies or banks or
financial institutions thatcould provide it.
And it seemed that it was builtspecifically to shut out certain
groups or certain entities.
So raising this or changing thisis really awesome.
Practically, this means thatmore WISPs, co-ops, and regional
(10:41):
ISPs can realisticallyparticipate in Bede without
tying up an unsustainable amountof capital for the life of the
build.
On the flip side, states are nowweaving these new rules into
their implementation plans, andsome are laying layering on
their own risk controls.
So the game shifts from can Iget a letter of credit at all to
can I satisfy the specificstate's version of acceptable
(11:02):
risk while still running abusiness?
Uh that from telecompetitors.
So lots of lots of fun thingsthat are happening there, but
nevertheless, it seems like Bedeis moving forward until you talk
about some of the news thathappened today or in the last
couple of days.
And so on that, we flip over toour buddy Drew Clark at
broadbandbreakfast.com.
And the headline is White Houseissues order pledging to
(11:22):
withhold Bede funds from stateswith onerous AI laws.
So check this out.
I'm gonna read, I'm gonna readsome of this article.
President Trump on Thursdaysigned an executive order aimed
at bolstering federal authorityover artificial intelligence
policy and requiring theCommerce Department to restrict
BEAD funding if states' laws onartificial intelligence are too
onerous, quote unquote.
(11:43):
The executive order, labeledEnsuring a National Policy
Framework for ArtificialIntelligence, makes minor
modifications to the November19th draft executive order, as
reported by Broadband Breakfast.
The draft version contained theaspiration that a single
minimally burdensome nationalstandard of AI regulation would
actually exist, but the finalexecutive order suggests that
this is a goal to be achievedwith Congress and said that the
(12:06):
2B developed framework shouldalso ensure that children are
protected, censorship isprevented, copyrights are
respected, and communities aresafeguarded.
All new language that have beenadded to this executive order.
Now, these changes don't impactthe core conclusion that NTIA
must issue a policy noticewithin 90 days specifying the
conditions under which statesmay be eligible for
non-deployment funding under the$42 billion BEAD program.
(12:30):
In signing the order, Trumpframed the effort as a matter of
geopolitical and technologicalcompetition.
There's only going to be onewinner here, Trump said during
the Oval Office signing, andthat's probably going to be the
U.S.
or China.
And right now, we're winning bya lot.
Trump linked the order to abroader effort to speed
permitting for AI data centersand their power supplies, saying
firms will be allowed to buildtheir own electricity generation
(12:52):
will receive rapid approvalsfrom the federal government.
If they had to get 50 differentapprovals from 50 different
states, you could forget it,Trump said.
I need is one hostile actor andyou wouldn't be able to do it.
Now there's a lot that goes intothis, right?
And and talk about you know thething that I kicked off this
episode with, talking about AIand all the things that they're
doing there.
This this has an impact on that.
If if the states aren't willingto play, or if there's you know,
(13:15):
if there's onerous AI laws, asyou said, then he's going to
withhold funding from them.
So now the onus is on the statesto figure out how they're
forming their quote unquote AIlaws if they want access to Bede
funding.
And I it's just it if it's notone thing, it's another with
Bede.
And I think that that that islike the story that has
consistently come up.
(13:36):
And it's like the governmentkeeps holding Bede funding over
the heads of the states and thegroups that can use it and that
need it and that want it.
And I I'm my fear is if theykeep going back and forth and
dilly-delling with these things,dude.
I mean, what's it doing at themanufacturing level and at the
channel level where people arelike, are we going to ship or
are we not going to ship?
Are you going to buy or are younot going to buy?
(13:57):
Do we need to produce equipment?
Do we not produce equipment?
There's so many things that goback and forth with Bede.
And and, you know, as a smallbusiness owner in this space, in
a in a space that could eitherbe hired as a consulting or an
engineer or an integration firm,man, I'm not I'm not touching
any of this stuff because Idon't want anything to do with
it right now.
I don't want to be anywhere nearinvolved with what is happening
(14:19):
with Bede until money startsflowing and projects start
working because I'm not I'm notthe type of person who wants to
start a project and then getheld up for 180 days on payment
or trying to figure out how topay crews to do work that isn't
funded.
It's just, you know, it theselittle you know puppeteering
tactics that the federalgovernment is using with regards
(14:41):
to bead, dude, they just suck.
And now this is just one morething that's added on top of
that.
All right, so some other newsfrom AWS reInvent 2025.
Networking quietly gets moremulti-cloud, and this was a big
flashy headline.
It was a big story that came outof reInvent.
At reInvent 2025, AWS's flashyAI stories got the headlines,
(15:01):
but the networking people werepaying attention to launches
like AWS Interconnect, themulti-cloud preview, which
offers private high-speed linksbetween Amazon VPCs and other
clouds, starting with GoogleCloud and Azure coming next
year.
On top of that, services likeRoute 53, the Global Resolver,
promote, sorry, promise moreunified DNS for hybrid
environments, taking some of theduct tape out of the split brain
(15:24):
and multi-region name resolutioncomponent of it.
(16:17):
For Wi-Fi and campus folks, thismatters because more core quote
unquote core network functions,including security and traffic
steering, are being pushed intocloud fabrics that span multiple
providers.
That makes the WLAN less aboutgetting traffic to a single data
center and more aboutintelligently feeding traffic
into a mesh of cloud edges wherepolicy and inspection live.
(16:37):
So instead of sending traffic tojust one location and trying to
figure out is this better leftand right, this is allowing it
to go all the way across theboard.
The more AWS and friendsnormalize multi-cloud
(17:38):
networking, the more pressurethere is on campus and branch
designs to be cloud aware bydefault.
This is like a whole nextgeneration of SD WAN, right?
It's not just about internetbreakout everywhere.
It's about smart paths intowhichever cloud edge is
currently running the app youruser cares about.
So think about that.
You've got an app running inAzure, you have an app running
in AWS, you're trying to figureout how to route between the
(17:58):
two.
This is a really neat thingthat's going to have some great
implications for the way thatuser experience is crafted
moving forward.
My dogs are going bananas today.
I think the UPS driver, it'sChristmas, right?
So the UPS driver's constantlyat my door, so I apologize if
you all can hear them in thebackground, but I got to get
this cut because I've got a hotdate with my wife.
(18:20):
We're going to spend less than24 hours cruising down to Mexico
City to go watch Fred again onthe USB 2 tour.
It's going to be so much fun.
I was able to grab tickets forthat, book some last-minute
flights, go down and just haveone night of dancing in an
incredible environment with mywife.
And if you have any backgroundon the whole rave culture thing,
(18:40):
some of these events are soincredible because they're not
announced until the Sundaybefore.
And you've got a couple days toget your stuff together, get
your travel ready, get prepped,and the events on Friday.
So it's going to be a really funtime going out to support an
event like this.
And I hope that more of them areto come.
So I'm going to keep rollingthrough the dogs barking, and
let's see what this next storyis about.
(19:03):
Alright, let's see what else wegot going on.
Oh, this is a good one.
So Ubiquity launched their Unify5G Max lineup.
This is supporting 5G as a WAN.
Ubiquiti's new Unify 5G Maxfamily, led by their Dream
Router 5G Max, is about making5G a first class WAN option that
feels like any other Unifiedgateway to deploy.
(19:23):
The flagship unit combines a 5Gmodem capable of multi-gigabit
downstream, Wi-Fi 7 tribandradios, including 6 gigahertz,
and a 10 gig SFP plus uplink.
It also has a 4.2.5 gig Ethernetswitch and local storage via
micro SD for Unify apps and N VRstyle workloads.
I mean, this is like this isreally neat what they're doing.
You know, Ubiquity always hasthese really cool products that
(19:46):
they bring to market, and thisone is is no different.
Everyone that's talking aboutit, there's there's a lot of
love for it.
The setup, I think, got a littleklugey in some places, but
overall, I mean, you've got anindoor version, you've got a
pretty slick outdoor version aswell.
And there's they're dedicated,right?
So you've got dedicated indoor,dedicated outdoor 5G max modems.
The outdoor variant carries IP67rated protection.
(20:07):
It's built for pole or rooftopmounting to pull in better
signal and backhaul entire siteswhere fiber isn't economical.
And with list prices in the midhundreds of dollars and
availability slated for early26, this gives MSPs and
prosumers a modular way to standup primary or fail over 5G at
remote sites without giving upUnify's management model.
So this is great for them as anintegration to everything that
(20:28):
they're doing.
I I love that there's this, youknow, this crazy path of, you
know, I could say innovation,but it's also necessity, right?
People are trying to leverageall these different ways to
connect to the internet, whereit's satellite or 5G or fiber or
copper, whatever it is.
And I love to see things justcontinually coming out to
(20:49):
support people to meet themwhere they need on the
connectivity side.
So it's really, really neat.
Now, this is awesome for pop-upvenues, construction sites, and
rural home lab nerds.
It's basically 5G in a box thatspeaks into your unify system.
The question will be how well itbehaves under sustained load and
how operators price theirunderlying 5G data plans once
people start treating this asreal backhaul and not just
(21:11):
backup.
So we'll see where that goes.
A Reddit thread this week showeda home labber dropping a Unify
5G max modem on a second floorwindow ledge, feeding a dream
machine, and pulling downmulti-hundred megabit speeds
with 20 to 30 millisecondslatency on a budget MBNO Slim.
The kicker was when their cableISP glitched during the
primetime streaming, the familyonly noticed because the kids'
(21:32):
Xbox Nat type changed.
Everything else quietly filledover directly through that 5G,
with Unify metrics catching aclean graph of the transition.
So that was a pretty cooltestament for what they're able
to do.
In one of the big demo halls atreInvent, a set of AI-powered
ops booths were running livedashboards over the venue Wi-Fi
while thousands of attendeeshammered the network with speed
(21:53):
tests and video calls.
The fun part was when a nearbylab initially broke routing as
part of a quote unquote chaostesting talk, a few demo pods
saw their dashboards stall whileothers riding over a separate
SSID with different upstreampaths stayed smooth, giving a
very real-time lesson in whysegmenting expo Wi-Fi from
critical demo Wi-Fi stillmatters.
Alright, so it's coming whetherwhether it maybe sooner rather
(22:16):
than later.
It's Wi-Fi 8.
So let's talk a little bit aboutWi-Fi 8.
Wi Fi 8 or 80211BN makes multiAP coordination a core design
goal, not an optional add on,aiming for about 25% better
throughput, 25% lower latency atthe 95th percentile, and a
similar reduction in packet losscompared with Wi Fi 7 at the
same interference levels.
(22:37):
Instead of each AP fighting forairtime on its own, coordinated
multi AP schemes let APs shareclient context, negotiate who
talks when, and manage roamingas if the entire deployment were
on one distributed radio fabric.
For dense enterprise and venuedeployments, that means better
handoffs, less ping-pongroaming, and more predictable
behavior when clients movebetween BSS's, because the next
(22:59):
AP already knows the client'sQOS and security profile before
the handoff.
Vendors are positioning this asthe shift from best effort Wi-Fi
to something closer todeterministic behavior in
crowded RF, especially forvoice, video, and industrial
applications.
A key Wi-Fi 8 innovation iscoordinated time division
multiple access, known as CTDMA,where multiple APs on the same
(23:21):
channel agree on who gets thetransmit opportunity instead of
colliding with random back-off.
In practice, a controller orcoordination entity assigns time
slots so that nearby APs don'tshout over each other, which
cuts contention and makeslatency more predictable for
high priority traffic.
This is particularly importantfor AI and sensor workloads
where uplinks matter as much asdownlinks in cameras, XR
(23:42):
headsets, or robots pushing dataupstream.
Coordinated TDMA and relatedmechanisms like coordinated
OFDMA and UL Mu MIMO or multi-multi-user MIMO are designed to
keep those uplink flows onschedule even while regular best
effort clients share the sameRF.
Wi-Fi 8 also extends spatialreuse ideas from earlier
(24:03):
amendments into coordinatedspatial reuse by allowing APs to
transmit at the same time in thesame channel when they can do so
safely.
Now, by exchanging informationabout interference in client
locations, APs can adjusttransmit power and reuse
spectrum more aggressivelywithout clobbering each other to
death, increasing area capacityinstead of just raw peak fi
rates.
(24:23):
On the client side, Wi-Fi 8 addsinitial link setup improvements
and coordinated roaming, whereAPs share client state ahead of
time, like we just talked about,so that handoffs avoid full
reauthentication and longpauses.
The benefit for this obviouslyis fewer drop calls, fewer video
freezes, plus roaming that feelslike it's staying on that one
logical AP even as devices movethroughout these multi-AP
(24:45):
environments.
Now, here's the reality check.
How much of this is actuallygoing to be real?
Because it sounds prettyfantastic.
Analyst and vendor roadmapsuggest that Wi-Fi 8
standardization will wrap around2028, with early silicone and
pre-standard gear appearingbetween 2026 and 2028, similar
to what we saw with A211N, likeright before it launched.
Most agree that multi-APcoordination will ship in
(25:07):
stages.
Simpler features likecoordinating roaming, basic
handoff, and somecontroller-driven scheduling
will appear first, while morecomplex schemes like full
CDTDMA, uh CTTDMA, sorry, andjoint transmission may be
limited to high-end enterpriseor industrial gear gear.
So let's see.
I mean, who's going to launch uhC T DMA first?
It's going to be cool to watch.
(25:27):
In other words, all these bigpromises for ultra high
reliability, near deterministiclatency, a massive multi-AP
orchestration are directionallyreal, but that's going to depend
on a couple things.
One, how much scheduler andcoordination complexity vendors
are willing to build incontrollers and APs?
What like what's that siliconegonna cost?
What's that what are those chipsgoing to cost?
What's what's that gonna costthe piece of equipment from a
(25:49):
memory and processing side?
Not to mention if you're puttinginto controllers or cloud
controllers.
We'll we'll see on that one.
Number two, whether enterprisesactually enable these features,
which often trade simplicity forperformance gains.
And three, regulatory inspectrumrealities in six gig and any
future bands.
I mean, cue the sound clip aboutwhat's going on in Europe right
now with six gigahertz.
(26:09):
A good narrative is that Wi-Fieight's multi-AP features will
be very real where there'sbudget, controller intelligence,
and good design.
For everybody else, it's gonnafeel like Wi-Fi 7 Plus until the
ecosystem catches up.
So we'll see how long that thatlasts.
So if you have to take that onesound bite, that's the one.
It's supposedly gonna be realwhen there's budget, not just
(26:29):
from the money side, but alsofrom the memory and processing
side.
So there's a quick uh snippet onWi-Fi 8, and that wraps me for
this week.
Get ready to head to Mexico,gonna go have a great night.
I will catch up with you allnext week.
Lots of really cool stuff comingin January.
So enjoy the holidays, enjoyrelaxing a little bit.
I'll still have a couple showsbefore then, but you know, come
(26:51):
January, we've got CES, andthat's gonna be a doozy for me.
Gonna have so much fun deployingsome Wi-Fi there and having a
great time.
I'll show you guys a little bitbehind the scenes there at CES
2026, and then going from theredirectly into NRF in New York
City at the National RetailFederation, which is one of my
favorite shows.
Between those two, you get tosee like all the consumer
electronic stuff, and then youget to see all of the retail
(27:13):
stuff, like one after another,and that really sets the pace
for the new year.
So if you're gonna be in Vegasfor CES or New York New York for
NRF, let me know.
After that, and in and in threedays, registration opens for
WLPC and Phoenix.
We've got three days on Monday.
The registration for WLPCPhoenix 2026 opens.
(27:34):
Do not sleep on this.
Registration goes fast.
I have a feeling this is gonnabe a pretty exceptional year.
Maybe we'll even get anothersellout year.
So make sure you buy your passesearly, register for those boot
camps, get everything ready forWLPC.
I can't wait.
It's gonna be really great.
I've you know, I missed being inPrague with everyone, but we all
get to catch up in Phoenix herein just over two months.
(27:54):
So it's gonna be awesome.
Make sure to register for WLPC,and I will see you guys soon.
Have a wonderful weekend.
See ya.
What's up, everybody?
It's Drew Lentz, the WirelessNerd, and it is December 2025.
I just got back from a week outin Las Vegas at AWS reInvent.
What an incredible show.
You know, I got to work on somereally fun projects, obviously
showcasing the five guys' burgerjoint that was out there.
Posted some really cool videoson LinkedIn.
One of the things that just mademe feel really awesome was as
(01:22):
soon as I walked in on Mondaymorning to start to get ready to
set up our demo for AWSreInvent.
Ed, the franchisee, walked outand said, Drew, are you ready to
make an ass out of yourself?
And I am always ready to make anass out of myself, just so you
know.
It just depends on what levelwe're talking about.
And in this case, he wanted meto compete against one of his
(01:42):
employees and go head to head tosee who could smash a 50-pound
bag of potatoes into Frenchfries faster, myself or Mikey?
Mikey won, no shocker there.
But you know, what really feltgood was being a part of his
team.
I put on the hat, I put on theshirt, I smashed some potatoes.
It was a really good time.
(02:02):
And, you know, beingcustomer-centric and customer
obsessed and customer driven andall those other things is
something that I feel like comesmaybe a little bit naturally to
me.
I love to get knee deep.
I live to get in the weeds,learn about people's projects,
learn about their businesses,and really have a good time
experiencing what theyexperience so that way I can
craft a solution for them thatworks at every level of what
(02:23):
they need it to.
So that was really fun.
I'm glad that I got a chance togo out there and do that.
Okay, so all that being said,you know, we showed off a really
cool thing.
I gave a little bit of a previewof it last week, and that was
the ability to connect Eerodirectly to AWS using site to
site VPN and using the gateway,the transit gateway to connect
(02:45):
different sites into AWS Cloud.
It was really neat because Idon't come from the AWS cloud
background.
I come from the Wi-Fibackground.
So learning a little bit aboutAWS networking and the way the
transit gateway works and theway that site-to-site VPN works
was really neat and a lot offun.
And I know a lot of you are AWSnerds, so it's fantastic to dip
my toes into your part of theworld.
(03:05):
And I had a really good timedoing it.
ReInvent was great.
I got to walk around the showfloor, got to meet the team from
Leo and see what they were doingwith satellite services.
I had a really, a really funtime.
One of the things that I didthat I absolutely loved was I
got the chance to go sit downfor about two hours on Monday
morning, and I got to get prettyheavy into Kiro.
(03:27):
And Kiro is an IDE forprogramming that brings together
all these amazing AI tools intoone spot, and it helps you
develop things without reallyhaving to know a lot of the
language behind it.
Now, obviously, super helpful ifyou've got a background in
programming and design, but whatit allowed me to do was quickly
iterate, quickly make, quicklydesign, and do the whole vibe
(03:49):
coding thing at a level I hadnever seen before.
So shout out to the Kiro teamfor the tool that they've put
together.
It was so much fun.
And I walked away just like akid in a candy store.
It was it was awesome.
I just I had such a good timedoing it.
So if you get a chance to usesome of these tools, I mean
there's a lot of really cool AIprogramming tools that are out
there, and Kiro was really,really fun to interface with.
(04:12):
So I went from doing that to alittle area that they had at
reInvent, which I thought wasreally cool, which is where they
took students who had nobackground in programming or
development, and they asked themto come up with an idea or an
app or an application of somesort that they could use to, you
know, to express themselves orchange the world or whatever.
(04:33):
And there was this really neatdisplay of all these different
things that had built by thathad been built by teenagers.
And the one that I liked themost was they had this robotic
hand, and what it did is in realtime, it took it basically
transcribe I don't even I don'tthink transcribed is the right
word, but it it would listenwith a microphone, and in real
time it would translate that tosign language using a robotic
(04:54):
hand.
And I thought that was so coolthat you could, you know, take a
kid who doesn't know anythingabout development, anything
about programming, but they knowthat robotic hands exist and
they know that they can use AIto build these tools, and they
cobbled those two thingstogether and they made this
really impactful product.
So that was really neat to see.
But overall, I mean the ideathat that the cloud, quote
(05:15):
unquote, that big cloud thing inthe, you know, in the ether, is
going to enable so much uhinnovative creativity by giving
people the ability to harness AIat these huge levels is pretty
insane.
Now, I gotta say, you know, it'shaving these conversations with
my daughter, she's 13, is alwaysfascinating because I feel like
(05:37):
her generation and thegeneration that's in middle
school going into high schoolright now is really not a fan of
AI.
They, you know, nothing good tosay.
I think about something thatshe, I don't know where she got
the quote, but she always talksabout two bottles of water that
every time you use AI, itconsumes two bottles of water.
And I've, you know, it sticks inmy head.
So every time I try like fire upperplexity or fire up Claude or
(06:00):
whatever it is, I think abouttwo bottles of water.
Now I don't know if that's trueor not.
Maybe someone can fact checkthat, but it's the idea and the
sentiment that AI is beinglooked at from different
generations as a negative to somany things.
And I just I understand the landstuff and I understand what's
happening in Louisiana and thedata centers and all these
(06:21):
things that are consuming all ofthe things.
And I just have faith that maybenow that's what's happening, but
in the future we're gonna finddifferent and better and more
efficient ways to power, tooperate, to run these data
centers so that AI becomesbetter and less straining on you
know on all the naturalresources around it.
(06:43):
But either way, I gotta say I'ma fan.
I mean, some a lot of the stuffthat I do every day, I rely on
AI tools to work with, and it'sso much fun.
So if you haven't, you know,drank the Kool-Aid yet and you
haven't gotten involved in doingsome some programming, some vibe
coding, you know, whatever itis, whether it's using Adobe
Lightroom or whether it's usingvibe coding or Kiro or you know,
(07:04):
autofocus on cameras, like I,you know, whatever it is,
there's so much AI that'shappening right now, and the way
that that works its way into ourindustry in the wireless and
networking space, I think isfascinating.
That's you know, meter up hadtheir whole thing about what
they're doing, and now there's alot of stuff that's happening
that people are gonna seesurfaced as the way that AI is
working into networking.
So, anyway, that's my AI rantfor the day.
(07:25):
I hate to sound like you know,the person says that that
buzzword over and over and overagain, but I just I'm
increasingly getting moreimpressed every day with what's
going on, and I'm not on theside that's a hater, and I'm not
on the side that's a superfanboy.
I'm in the middle from theusability perspective.
So I thought I'd shed some lighton that.
This week's Waves theme is Wi-Fiis getting more dual, more AI
(07:49):
driven, and more funded.
If you can navigate the shiftingrules that decide who is
actually getting those Bdollars, lots of things that are
happening there.
So let's start off with the HPEdual mode Wi-Fi 7 APs.
This is Mist and Central comingtogether on the same hardware.
HPE used its Discoverannouncements to roll out Wi-Fi
7 access points that can beonboarded into either HPE Ruba
(08:10):
Networking Central or into theJuniper Mist Cloud with the same
hardware able to flip betweencontrol planes as customer
strategy changes.
This pitch is labeled as quoteunquote buyer protection.
Invest once in Wi-Fi 7 radiosand AI ready silicone, then
decide later whether yourlong-term home is Aruba Central
stack or Miss Marvice driven AIops instead of being locked into
(08:31):
one controller ecosystem.
From an enterprise and MSPperspective, this directly
attacks one of the biggestbarriers to switching vendors,
which is the cost of forklift APswaps just to change management
platforms.
It also signals how serious HPEis about integrating Juniper
Mist acquisition and making thathappen quickly, with plans to
move Mist's AI large experiencemodel and Marvus Assistant into
(08:52):
HP Networking Central whilepushing Aruba AI features into
Mist over the next year.
My take on this is that this isthe first credible dual mode AP
story at scale, and it's goingto show up in RFPs as a hedge
against buyer's remorse.
I mean, a lot of people havebeen wondering how this is going
to work.
Should they buy HPE?
Should they buy Aruba?
Should they buy Juniper?
Should they buy Cisco?
Should they buy Eero?
(09:12):
Should they buy, you know,everyone's trying to question
what it is that they're buying.
And at least for this storybetween Juniper Mist and HPE
Aruba and whatever the name ofall of that is, this is an
interesting time.
This, the the interestingtension is going to be how
channel partners position thiswhen each side, Aruba, you know,
versus Mist, still want to ownthe account relationship long
(09:33):
term.
I wonder what that's gonna looklike.
I got dogs park in thebackground.
That's okay.
We're just gonna keep rolling.
So it's fascinating to thinkabout how this is going to
affect not just the channel, butthe end users as well.
All right, let's talk about Bedefunding, the letter of credit
relief and some of the newgotchas.
So NTIA's July 2025 programmaticwaiver finally loosened one of
(09:55):
the nastiest constraints inBede, which is the letter of
credit requirement that hadeffectively shut out a lot of
smaller community-focusedproviders.
This update lets awardees usebanks that are quote unquote
well capitalized or rated BBBminus or higher by a recognized
rating agency rather thanrelying on a very narrow slice
of institutions.
And this allows the size of theletter of credit to ratchet down
(10:18):
as a project hits deploymentmilestones.
This is huge because before youhad to have this crazy letter of
credit from just a very fewamount of agencies or banks or
financial institutions thatcould provide it.
And it seemed that it was builtspecifically to shut out certain
groups or certain entities.
So raising this or changing thisis really awesome.
Practically, this means thatmore WISPs, co-ops, and regional
(10:41):
ISPs can realisticallyparticipate in Bede without
tying up an unsustainable amountof capital for the life of the
build.
On the flip side, states are nowweaving these new rules into
their implementation plans, andsome are laying layering on
their own risk controls.
So the game shifts from can Iget a letter of credit at all to
can I satisfy the specificstate's version of acceptable
(11:02):
risk while still running abusiness?
Uh that from telecompetitors.
So lots of lots of fun thingsthat are happening there, but
nevertheless, it seems like Bedeis moving forward until you talk
about some of the news thathappened today or in the last
couple of days.
And so on that, we flip over toour buddy Drew Clark at
broadbandbreakfast.com.
And the headline is White Houseissues order pledging to
(11:22):
withhold Bede funds from stateswith onerous AI laws.
So check this out.
I'm gonna read, I'm gonna readsome of this article.
President Trump on Thursdaysigned an executive order aimed
at bolstering federal authorityover artificial intelligence
policy and requiring theCommerce Department to restrict
BEAD funding if states' laws onartificial intelligence are too
onerous, quote unquote.
(11:43):
The executive order, labeledEnsuring a National Policy
Framework for ArtificialIntelligence, makes minor
modifications to the November19th draft executive order, as
reported by Broadband Breakfast.
The draft version contained theaspiration that a single
minimally burdensome nationalstandard of AI regulation would
actually exist, but the finalexecutive order suggests that
this is a goal to be achievedwith Congress and said that the
(12:06):
2B developed framework shouldalso ensure that children are
protected, censorship isprevented, copyrights are
respected, and communities aresafeguarded.
All new language that have beenadded to this executive order.
Now, these changes don't impactthe core conclusion that NTIA
must issue a policy noticewithin 90 days specifying the
conditions under which statesmay be eligible for
non-deployment funding under the$42 billion BEAD program.
(12:30):
In signing the order, Trumpframed the effort as a matter of
geopolitical and technologicalcompetition.
There's only going to be onewinner here, Trump said during
the Oval Office signing, andthat's probably going to be the
U.S.
or China.
And right now, we're winning bya lot.
Trump linked the order to abroader effort to speed
permitting for AI data centersand their power supplies, saying
firms will be allowed to buildtheir own electricity generation
(12:52):
will receive rapid approvalsfrom the federal government.
If they had to get 50 differentapprovals from 50 different
states, you could forget it,Trump said.
I need is one hostile actor andyou wouldn't be able to do it.
Now there's a lot that goes intothis, right?
And and talk about you know thething that I kicked off this
episode with, talking about AIand all the things that they're
doing there.
This this has an impact on that.
If if the states aren't willingto play, or if there's you know,
(13:15):
if there's onerous AI laws, asyou said, then he's going to
withhold funding from them.
So now the onus is on the statesto figure out how they're
forming their quote unquote AIlaws if they want access to Bede
funding.
And I it's just it if it's notone thing, it's another with
Bede.
And I think that that that islike the story that has
consistently come up.
(13:36):
And it's like the governmentkeeps holding Bede funding over
the heads of the states and thegroups that can use it and that
need it and that want it.
And I I'm my fear is if theykeep going back and forth and
dilly-delling with these things,dude.
I mean, what's it doing at themanufacturing level and at the
channel level where people arelike, are we going to ship or
are we not going to ship?
Are you going to buy or are younot going to buy?
(13:57):
Do we need to produce equipment?
Do we not produce equipment?
There's so many things that goback and forth with Bede.
And and, you know, as a smallbusiness owner in this space, in
a in a space that could eitherbe hired as a consulting or an
engineer or an integration firm,man, I'm not I'm not touching
any of this stuff because Idon't want anything to do with
it right now.
I don't want to be anywhere nearinvolved with what is happening
(14:19):
with Bede until money startsflowing and projects start
working because I'm not I'm notthe type of person who wants to
start a project and then getheld up for 180 days on payment
or trying to figure out how topay crews to do work that isn't
funded.
It's just, you know, it theselittle you know puppeteering
tactics that the federalgovernment is using with regards
(14:41):
to bead, dude, they just suck.
And now this is just one morething that's added on top of
that.
All right, so some other newsfrom AWS reInvent 2025.
Networking quietly gets moremulti-cloud, and this was a big
flashy headline.
It was a big story that came outof reInvent.
At reInvent 2025, AWS's flashyAI stories got the headlines,
(15:01):
but the networking people werepaying attention to launches
like AWS Interconnect, themulti-cloud preview, which
offers private high-speed linksbetween Amazon VPCs and other
clouds, starting with GoogleCloud and Azure coming next
year.
On top of that, services likeRoute 53, the Global Resolver,
promote, sorry, promise moreunified DNS for hybrid
environments, taking some of theduct tape out of the split brain
(15:24):
and multi-region name resolutioncomponent of it.
(16:17):
For Wi-Fi and campus folks, thismatters because more core quote
unquote core network functions,including security and traffic
steering, are being pushed intocloud fabrics that span multiple
providers.
That makes the WLAN less aboutgetting traffic to a single data
center and more aboutintelligently feeding traffic
into a mesh of cloud edges wherepolicy and inspection live.
(16:37):
So instead of sending traffic tojust one location and trying to
figure out is this better leftand right, this is allowing it
to go all the way across theboard.
The more AWS and friendsnormalize multi-cloud
(17:38):
networking, the more pressurethere is on campus and branch
designs to be cloud aware bydefault.
This is like a whole nextgeneration of SD WAN, right?
It's not just about internetbreakout everywhere.
It's about smart paths intowhichever cloud edge is
currently running the app youruser cares about.
So think about that.
You've got an app running inAzure, you have an app running
in AWS, you're trying to figureout how to route between the
(17:58):
two.
This is a really neat thingthat's going to have some great
implications for the way thatuser experience is crafted
moving forward.
My dogs are going bananas today.
I think the UPS driver, it'sChristmas, right?
So the UPS driver's constantlyat my door, so I apologize if
you all can hear them in thebackground, but I got to get
this cut because I've got a hotdate with my wife.
(18:20):
We're going to spend less than24 hours cruising down to Mexico
City to go watch Fred again onthe USB 2 tour.
It's going to be so much fun.
I was able to grab tickets forthat, book some last-minute
flights, go down and just haveone night of dancing in an
incredible environment with mywife.
And if you have any backgroundon the whole rave culture thing,
(18:40):
some of these events are soincredible because they're not
announced until the Sundaybefore.
And you've got a couple days toget your stuff together, get
your travel ready, get prepped,and the events on Friday.
So it's going to be a really funtime going out to support an
event like this.
And I hope that more of them areto come.
So I'm going to keep rollingthrough the dogs barking, and
let's see what this next storyis about.
(19:03):
Alright, let's see what else wegot going on.
Oh, this is a good one.
So Ubiquity launched their Unify5G Max lineup.
This is supporting 5G as a WAN.
Ubiquiti's new Unify 5G Maxfamily, led by their Dream
Router 5G Max, is about making5G a first class WAN option that
feels like any other Unifiedgateway to deploy.
(19:23):
The flagship unit combines a 5Gmodem capable of multi-gigabit
downstream, Wi-Fi 7 tribandradios, including 6 gigahertz,
and a 10 gig SFP plus uplink.
It also has a 4.2.5 gig Ethernetswitch and local storage via
micro SD for Unify apps and N VRstyle workloads.
I mean, this is like this isreally neat what they're doing.
You know, Ubiquity always hasthese really cool products that
(19:46):
they bring to market, and thisone is is no different.
Everyone that's talking aboutit, there's there's a lot of
love for it.
The setup, I think, got a littleklugey in some places, but
overall, I mean, you've got anindoor version, you've got a
pretty slick outdoor version aswell.
And there's they're dedicated,right?
So you've got dedicated indoor,dedicated outdoor 5G max modems.
The outdoor variant carries IP67rated protection.
(20:07):
It's built for pole or rooftopmounting to pull in better
signal and backhaul entire siteswhere fiber isn't economical.
And with list prices in the midhundreds of dollars and
availability slated for early26, this gives MSPs and
prosumers a modular way to standup primary or fail over 5G at
remote sites without giving upUnify's management model.
So this is great for them as anintegration to everything that
(20:28):
they're doing.
I I love that there's this, youknow, this crazy path of, you
know, I could say innovation,but it's also necessity, right?
People are trying to leverageall these different ways to
connect to the internet, whereit's satellite or 5G or fiber or
copper, whatever it is.
And I love to see things justcontinually coming out to
(20:49):
support people to meet themwhere they need on the
connectivity side.
So it's really, really neat.
Now, this is awesome for pop-upvenues, construction sites, and
rural home lab nerds.
It's basically 5G in a box thatspeaks into your unify system.
The question will be how well itbehaves under sustained load and
how operators price theirunderlying 5G data plans once
people start treating this asreal backhaul and not just
(21:11):
backup.
So we'll see where that goes.
A Reddit thread this week showeda home labber dropping a Unify
5G max modem on a second floorwindow ledge, feeding a dream
machine, and pulling downmulti-hundred megabit speeds
with 20 to 30 millisecondslatency on a budget MBNO Slim.
The kicker was when their cableISP glitched during the
primetime streaming, the familyonly noticed because the kids'
(21:32):
Xbox Nat type changed.
Everything else quietly filledover directly through that 5G,
with Unify metrics catching aclean graph of the transition.
So that was a pretty cooltestament for what they're able
to do.
In one of the big demo halls atreInvent, a set of AI-powered
ops booths were running livedashboards over the venue Wi-Fi
while thousands of attendeeshammered the network with speed
(21:53):
tests and video calls.
The fun part was when a nearbylab initially broke routing as
part of a quote unquote chaostesting talk, a few demo pods
saw their dashboards stall whileothers riding over a separate
SSID with different upstreampaths stayed smooth, giving a
very real-time lesson in whysegmenting expo Wi-Fi from
critical demo Wi-Fi stillmatters.
Alright, so it's coming whetherwhether it maybe sooner rather
(22:16):
than later.
It's Wi-Fi 8.
So let's talk a little bit aboutWi-Fi 8.
Wi Fi 8 or 80211BN makes multiAP coordination a core design
goal, not an optional add on,aiming for about 25% better
throughput, 25% lower latency atthe 95th percentile, and a
similar reduction in packet losscompared with Wi Fi 7 at the
same interference levels.
(22:37):
Instead of each AP fighting forairtime on its own, coordinated
multi AP schemes let APs shareclient context, negotiate who
talks when, and manage roamingas if the entire deployment were
on one distributed radio fabric.
For dense enterprise and venuedeployments, that means better
handoffs, less ping-pongroaming, and more predictable
behavior when clients movebetween BSS's, because the next
(22:59):
AP already knows the client'sQOS and security profile before
the handoff.
Vendors are positioning this asthe shift from best effort Wi-Fi
to something closer todeterministic behavior in
crowded RF, especially forvoice, video, and industrial
applications.
A key Wi-Fi 8 innovation iscoordinated time division
multiple access, known as CTDMA,where multiple APs on the same
(23:21):
channel agree on who gets thetransmit opportunity instead of
colliding with random back-off.
In practice, a controller orcoordination entity assigns time
slots so that nearby APs don'tshout over each other, which
cuts contention and makeslatency more predictable for
high priority traffic.
This is particularly importantfor AI and sensor workloads
where uplinks matter as much asdownlinks in cameras, XR
(23:42):
headsets, or robots pushing dataupstream.
Coordinated TDMA and relatedmechanisms like coordinated
OFDMA and UL Mu MIMO or multi-multi-user MIMO are designed to
keep those uplink flows onschedule even while regular best
effort clients share the sameRF.
Wi-Fi 8 also extends spatialreuse ideas from earlier
(24:03):
amendments into coordinatedspatial reuse by allowing APs to
transmit at the same time in thesame channel when they can do so
safely.
Now, by exchanging informationabout interference in client
locations, APs can adjusttransmit power and reuse
spectrum more aggressivelywithout clobbering each other to
death, increasing area capacityinstead of just raw peak fi
rates.
(24:23):
On the client side, Wi-Fi 8 addsinitial link setup improvements
and coordinated roaming, whereAPs share client state ahead of
time, like we just talked about,so that handoffs avoid full
reauthentication and longpauses.
The benefit for this obviouslyis fewer drop calls, fewer video
freezes, plus roaming that feelslike it's staying on that one
logical AP even as devices movethroughout these multi-AP
(24:45):
environments.
Now, here's the reality check.
How much of this is actuallygoing to be real?
Because it sounds prettyfantastic.
Analyst and vendor roadmapsuggest that Wi-Fi 8
standardization will wrap around2028, with early silicone and
pre-standard gear appearingbetween 2026 and 2028, similar
to what we saw with A211N, likeright before it launched.
Most agree that multi-APcoordination will ship in
(25:07):
stages.
Simpler features likecoordinating roaming, basic
handoff, and somecontroller-driven scheduling
will appear first, while morecomplex schemes like full
CDTDMA, uh CTTDMA, sorry, andjoint transmission may be
limited to high-end enterpriseor industrial gear gear.
So let's see.
I mean, who's going to launch uhC T DMA first?
It's going to be cool to watch.
(25:27):
In other words, all these bigpromises for ultra high
reliability, near deterministiclatency, a massive multi-AP
orchestration are directionallyreal, but that's going to depend
on a couple things.
One, how much scheduler andcoordination complexity vendors
are willing to build incontrollers and APs?
What like what's that siliconegonna cost?
What's that what are those chipsgoing to cost?
What's what's that gonna costthe piece of equipment from a
(25:49):
memory and processing side?
Not to mention if you're puttinginto controllers or cloud
controllers.
We'll we'll see on that one.
Number two, whether enterprisesactually enable these features,
which often trade simplicity forperformance gains.
And three, regulatory inspectrumrealities in six gig and any
future bands.
I mean, cue the sound clip aboutwhat's going on in Europe right
now with six gigahertz.
(26:09):
A good narrative is that Wi-Fieight's multi-AP features will
be very real where there'sbudget, controller intelligence,
and good design.
For everybody else, it's gonnafeel like Wi-Fi 7 Plus until the
ecosystem catches up.
So we'll see how long that thatlasts.
So if you have to take that onesound bite, that's the one.
It's supposedly gonna be realwhen there's budget, not just
(26:29):
from the money side, but alsofrom the memory and processing
side.
So there's a quick uh snippet onWi-Fi 8, and that wraps me for
this week.
Get ready to head to Mexico,gonna go have a great night.
I will catch up with you allnext week.
Lots of really cool stuff comingin January.
So enjoy the holidays, enjoyrelaxing a little bit.
I'll still have a couple showsbefore then, but you know, come
(26:51):
January, we've got CES, andthat's gonna be a doozy for me.
Gonna have so much fun deployingsome Wi-Fi there and having a
great time.
I'll show you guys a little bitbehind the scenes there at CES
2026, and then going from theredirectly into NRF in New York
City at the National RetailFederation, which is one of my
favorite shows.
Between those two, you get tosee like all the consumer
electronic stuff, and then youget to see all of the retail
(27:13):
stuff, like one after another,and that really sets the pace
for the new year.
So if you're gonna be in Vegasfor CES or New York New York for
NRF, let me know.
After that, and in and in threedays, registration opens for
WLPC and Phoenix.
We've got three days on Monday.
The registration for WLPCPhoenix 2026 opens.
(27:34):
Do not sleep on this.
Registration goes fast.
I have a feeling this is gonnabe a pretty exceptional year.
Maybe we'll even get anothersellout year.
So make sure you buy your passesearly, register for those boot
camps, get everything ready forWLPC.
I can't wait.
It's gonna be really great.
I've you know, I missed being inPrague with everyone, but we all
get to catch up in Phoenix herein just over two months.
(27:54):
So it's gonna be awesome.
Make sure to register for WLPC,and I will see you guys soon.
Have a wonderful weekend.
See ya.
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