When I first learned electronics, I thought like most that “wired” was the way to go. Need another DC-to-10 GHz spectrum? Run another coax. Viz. the 80’s/early-90’s with Wired magazine, ethernet, cyberpunk and it’s stereotypical “jacking in”. No one thought wireless was going to be that useful because everyone was stuck in the old model of “transmit as far and as wide as possible” and “we only have one wireless spectrum, we have to conserve and regulate it!”
No longer. We’re discovering how to really use the air spectrum. We’re truly becoming “wireless”. In this new mode, wireless is connectivity, but social, bound to a geographic region. Wired will alwasy be about the highest,best bandwidth connection, but requires planning and routing. Wireless isn’t about the best connectivity, but about the pervasive one, the one near you. Wireless is “social connectivity”. It is “geo-networking”. Or “local networking”, if the term wasn’t already loaded beyond repair.
Cell towers with 120º sectors makes hexagons. Access points with omni antennaes optimally pack into hexagons. These transceivers are low-power and everyone shares the spectrum, transmitting only as powerful as they need, and using clever frequency hopping techniques to avoid “talk-over”. Regulation becomes less of a concern, just agreement upon basic wireless ethics: no CW, frequency hop, milliwatt transceivers. We’re being bound by social constructs, not technological.
Air bandwidth is finite, but 1/r2 drop-off, spread spectrum, and ethical use makes for “connectivity tribes”. Today we define our locale by zipcode, tomorrow by cell tower ID and WiFi SSID.