wifi
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The Co-op That Wired the Backroads Before Big Telecom Bothered to Look
For seventy-plus years a member-owned co-op in Abbeville has been laying fiber down roads the big carriers ignored. When Hurricane Helene knocked the region offline, its offices became the place people went to charge a phone and find a signal.
Spectrum’s Big Bet: Make the Cable Bundle Useful Again
The cable bundle did not disappear. Spectrum is rebuilding it around broadband, WiFi, mobile and streaming - and betting that one connected household is worth more than four separate subscriptions.
Cisco
The company that quietly wired the internet is now betting its next chapter on securing and connecting the machines that run artificial intelligence.
Aerwave
Aerwave is a Texas-based proptech company that designs, deploys and operates next-generation managed Wi-Fi for multifamily residential communities. It delivers property-wide, gigabit-speed internet that is secure and always on, paired with 24/7 domestic support, an owner analytics dashboard, and a capital program that lets property owners deploy infrastructure with no upfront cost. Aerwave works exclusively with real estate owners, developers and operators across the multifamily, build-to-rent, single-family rental and student-housing markets.
Extreme Networks
Extreme Networks is a Nasdaq-listed enterprise networking company that designs wired and wireless infrastructure - switches, Wi-Fi access points and SD-WAN - and pairs it with cloud-managed, AI-driven software. Built around ExtremeCloud IQ and the newer Extreme Platform ONE, the company delivers cloud and increasingly AI-native networking to more than 50,000 customers worldwide, from NFL stadiums and hospitals to schools, factories and retailers. Headquartered in Morrisville, North Carolina, it competes with Cisco, HPE Aruba, Juniper and Arista by pitching a single, simpler platform that unifies networking, security and analytics.
LinkSure Network
LinkSure Network is the mobile-internet company behind WiFi Master Key (now WiFi Master, at wifi.com), a peer-to-peer app that lets people find and connect to shared Wi-Fi hotspots for free. Founded in 2013 in Shanghai by serial entrepreneur Chen Danian and later headquartered with an overseas base in Singapore, the app grew into one of the world's most-used utilities, reaching roughly 800-900 million users at its peak. LinkSure layers cloud security detection, encrypted tunnels and machine-learning risk scoring on top of the connection experience, and monetizes primarily through in-app advertising and content.
Relay2 Inc.
Relay2 Inc. is a Milpitas, California networking company that builds Wi-Fi access points with computing and storage baked in. Its patented ServiceEdge Platform and Service Point devices let businesses and managed service providers run applications at the network edge - on-premises, close to where data is created - instead of shuttling everything to the cloud. Founded in 2011 by Eric Chen, Relay2 targets retail, education, manufacturing, transportation and MSPs that want to lower the total cost of deploying enterprise-class WLAN while unlocking new edge services.
KoreLock
KoreLock is a Denver-based IoT smart lock technology company that gives lock manufacturers and access control providers a turnkey, patented platform - embedded firmware, custom PCBAs, mobile and web apps, and cloud APIs - to turn ordinary offline locks into Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connected devices. Rather than competing with lock makers or software companies, KoreLock positions itself as the interoperability bridge between hardware and access control software, with technology already embedded in tens of thousands of devices across 65+ countries.
Plume
Plume is a Palo Alto-based software company that turns home and small-business WiFi into a managed, self-optimizing service. Its cloud platform - delivered through internet service providers rather than direct to consumers - uses machine learning to continuously tune connectivity, secure connected devices, and layer on consumer apps like parental controls, motion-sensing, and guest access. Built on the open-source OpenSync framework, Plume powers tens of millions of locations and more than a billion connected devices worldwide for operators including Comcast, Charter, Liberty Global, and Vodafone.
SIMO
SIMO is a San Francisco mobile-connectivity company whose patented virtual SIM (vSIM) lets devices roam across 300+ carriers in 140+ countries with no physical SIM card. Founded in 2009 as Skyroam, it now powers the Solis line of pocket hotspots for consumers and an embedded chipset/cloud platform used by enterprises, automakers and IoT fleets.