The culprit for poor WiFi turns out, in almost all cases, to be interference. And it's not generally interference caused by other WiFi radios; the problematic interference is caused most by baby monitors, microwaves, [and] portable phones...
Wifi is as important as cell phone service. But the reliability and configuration experience for the standard is atrocious. I know I've probably spent untold hours in wifi configuration trying to get the dang thing to work, both on my laptop and for other people's machines.
Isn't it time we set aside some real bandwidth for this critical standard? Baby monitors and portable phones that mess with my wifi channel can go in the trash as far as I'm concerned.
If Wifi were as important as public roads, then our current system of allowing other services on the same 2.4Ghz band would be like allowing riding lawnmowers on the freeways. Tech policy wonks and networking equipment firms need to get their act together and prioritize wireless Internet access.
We measure traffic jams in terms of economic opportunity loss in the hundreds of millions. Is it time that we measure wireless access in the same way?