IEEE is not pronounced “AYE-EEEEEE”

It’s pronounced “Eye-Triple-E”, and the acronym stands for “Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers”. IEEE is an international engineering professional organization with over 400,000 members.

What does this have to do with Wi-Fi? One of IEEE’s major functions is its role as a “standards body” — in which it organizes international committees of engineers to develop technical specifications. These IEEE specifications commonly become widely adopted as global standards, used by manufacturers worldwide for their products. In particular, the IEEE 802.11 committee is responsible for developing standards for wireless local area networks — in other words, for Wi-Fi.

The IEEE 802.11 committee began its work in the early 1990s, selected a foundation protocol for the standard in 1993, published the first version of the standard in 1997, and specified an enhanced radio transmission technology known as “802.11b” in 1999. The combination of the foundation protocol with the 802.11b technology was branded as Wi-Fi in 1999, and the first Wi-Fi products were certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2000.

Read more about the history of IEEE 802.11 and Wi-Fi in Beyond Everywhere.