Tech Companies & Wi-Fi Failure

 I’m used to using Wi-Fi in coffee spots, campus libraries, classrooms, and in my home, whenever a random signal comes my way from the strip of restaurants near my apartment.  From my experience, the largest crowd I’ve had to share a connection with was a class of maybe 100 students. If I went to a tech conference, especially one hosted by reputable company, I would expect Wi-Fi and I would expect it to work well, regardless of the amount of people at the conference. Well, according to Verne G. Kopytoff’s “Wi-fi Overload at High Tech Meetings”, Wi-Fi often fails at such conferences.

Within the tech community, tech conferences are the norm. As expected, attendees come to the conferences with all of their Wi-Fi capable devices and usually use Wi-Fi during the event. Due to large attendances, hundreds or more than a thousand, the Wi-Fi connection usually fails or slows immensely. According to Kopytoff, this happens a lot, these are two of his examples: last month at Web 2.0 summit, attendees got to hear from various tech power players, unfortunately the Wi-Fi failed; and at the unveiling of the iPhone 4, Steve Jobs’ presentation was delayed due to overuse of the Wi-Fi. The conclusion is that Wi-Fi is not for large crowds.

This may be an obvious fact. But it is a sad truth, which leads to tech companies experiencing embarrassing public moments at their conferences. No one expects Apple, Google, or any other tech company to have to wait for Wi-Fi availability or experience a tech failure, of any kind, at their conferences. The reality is while people may know that Wi-Fi is not capable of large crowds, this fact won’t stop people from blaming Wi-Fi failures on the tech companies. Until Wi-Fi catches up with demand (if that’s possible), tech companies are going to have to become skilled in the crisis management of Wi-Fi failure.