It was the size of a shoebox, and Canadian — the very first spread spectrum wireless LAN product to be approved by the FCC.

The Canadian company Telesystems SLC occupies a place of honor as the first company to receive FCC approval for its spread spectrum radio wireless LAN product, called ARLAN. Several years earlier the FCC had established new rules allowing such unlicensed radio products, but the technology required was tricky and it wasn’t clear that products could actually be developed that would be attractive for the commercial market. After Telesystems’s success, other companies — including Agilis, O’Neill, and NCR — would receive similar authorization for their wireless LAN products.

Telesystems was subsequently bought by Telxon, then spun off into Aironet, which was acquired by Cisco in 1999.

Read more about the history of Wi-Fi in Beyond Everywhere.