Microwave Bypass, Inc. launched the world's first fixed wireless internet access technology in 1987, a decade before

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

. It enabled local and remote networks to connect at the then full Ethernet (802.3) data rate of 10 megabits per second, and for up to 4.3 miles. The company was founded in March 1986 by David Theodore (25), operating from One

Kendall Square Kendall Square is a neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The square itself at the intersection of Main Street and Broadway. It also refers to the broad business district east of Portland Street, northwest of the Charles River, north of MIT ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. Its wireless solution consisted of a modified broadcast quality video radio (23 GHz) coupled with Microwave Bypass' EtherWave Transceiver. The system met the then highest Ethernet throughput and could transmit , in keeping with Ethernet's propagation delay allowance (46.4µs). Beta testing occurred at Massachusetts General Hospital in March 1987, at the invitation of network manager, David Murphy, and with Network World's Laura DiDio and representatives of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

's Dr. Mikhail Orlov in attendance. After a successful demo the first two production links were installed in parallel between

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and Harvard's Cardiac Computer Center, across the

Charles River The Charles River ( Massachusett: ''Quinobequin)'' (sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles) is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles b ...

. This also marked the first wireless transmission of MR images. In 1988, Microwave Bypass collaborated with

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

on a full-duplex EtherWave Transceiver to eliminate 802.3 collision detection and permit longer distance connections as far as the microwave could reach. This first full-duplex design was developed for an application at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

, between its main campus and Lincoln Laboratories. Later that year Microwave Bypass completed an exclusive deal, announced by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

, for the transfer of its EtherWave Transceiver and LAN-LINK 1000 Bridge technologies. Company Highlights • Microwave Bypass' wireless tech brought the first internet access to greater Boston through a consortium led by MIT, Harvard and Boston University. The early, all wireless network, was called NEARnet, and included world leaders in education, health care and technology. • Deployed a Smithsonian Award winning K-12 network for Desert Sands Unified School District (CA), designed an extensive backbone for the Space Shuttle Project (

Edwards AFB Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is Ed ...

), provided Interop with its first internet connection (1989), and installed the first residential Wi-Fi (fixed wireless), notably for

Bill Joy William Nelson Joy (born November 8, 1954) is an American computer engineer and venture capitalist. He co-founded Sun Microsystems in 1982 along with Scott McNealy, Vinod Khosla, and Andy Bechtolsheim, and served as Chief Scientist and CTO at ...

co-founder of

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

. • Microwave Bypass was selected one of the top ten industry leaders by "LAN Times," in 1990 and was highly regarded by analysts, including the

Aberdeen Group Aberdeen is an international marketing intelligence company. Aberdeen's headquarters is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States, with an additional US office location in Wilton, CT, as well as three European offices in Versailles (France), ...

, which estimated the company's market share at 70%.Untethered Opportunities

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *{{cite journal , author = David Theodore , year = 2021 , title = Collected Works of David Theodore , journal = Collected Works of David Theodore , volume = , issue = , pages = , url = https://www.davidtheodore.com/ , doi = 1986 establishments in Massachusetts American companies established in 1986