Waves with Wireless Nerd

Drew Lentz the Wirelessnerd
  • 5.0 (4)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Join me for a weekly look into what's making waves in tech and the wireless industry! What's new? What's now? What's next?

  1. 3D AGO

    From Fries To Fiber, Dual-Mode APs, Multi-Cloud to WiFi 8, 5G & more!

    Send us a text A week in Vegas turned into a crash course in where networking is headed—starting with a potato-smashing contest at Five Guys and ending with Eero tunnels landing cleanly in AWS. That gut-level, customer-first perspective sets the tone as we dig into real demos, new tools, and the shifting policies that shape what gets built next. We unpack how a simple site-to-site VPN and a transit gateway can turn small sites into first-class cloud citizens, then jump into Kiro, an AI-driven IDE that makes rapid prototyping feel effortless. A standout moment: teens using microphones and servos to drive a robotic hand that signs in real time, a reminder that accessible AI tooling can move ideas from spark to shipping. We also test the cultural headwinds—why younger folks view AI as wasteful—and explore practical paths toward efficiency, cleaner power, and responsible scaling without losing the productivity gains many of us rely on every day. On the enterprise front, HPE’s dual‑mode Wi‑Fi 7 access points promise real buyer protection by letting teams pivot between Aruba Central and Juniper Mist without forklift swaps. Meanwhile, BEAD funding loosens letter‑of‑credit rules but collides with a new White House order tying eligibility to state AI policy, adding uncertainty for WISPs, co‑ops, and integrators trying to plan builds. From the show floor, the subtle star was networking: AWS Interconnect’s multi‑cloud links and unified DNS hint at a future where campus Wi‑Fi feeds smart paths into whichever cloud edge hosts your app. Add Ubiquiti’s UniFi 5G Max lineup and 5G becomes a serious primary or failover WAN that still lives inside familiar management. We close by charting Wi‑Fi 8’s coordinated multi‑AP vision—CTDMA, better roaming, and predictable latency—and where it will feel real first. If this mix of hands-on stories, practical architectures, and straight talk on policy helped, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review. Your take: is dual‑mode Wi‑Fi 7 meaningful buyer protection or just marketing hedge? Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    27 min
  2. re:Invent 25 for Wireless Nerds: Free Burgers, Faster Satellites, And Wi‑Fi That Actually Works

    NOV 25

    re:Invent 25 for Wireless Nerds: Free Burgers, Faster Satellites, And Wi‑Fi That Actually Works

    Send us a text Special edition! Cloud meets real‑world scale on the Las Vegas strip as we line up two big stories: Amazon Leo’s leap to gigabit‑class LEO connectivity and a live eero deployment inside the largest Five Guys in the franchise. We set the scene for reInvent, map out the sessions worth your time, and explain how these pieces fit into a resilient, transport‑agnostic network strategy you can actually deploy. First, we break down why Amazon Leo’s enterprise preview matters for architects who live with last‑mile pain. With a new ultra antenna and speeds up to 1 Gbps down and 400 Mbps up, Leo changes the playbook for remote and distributed sites. We point you to session ARC320 with Leo principal solutions architect Nick Matthews for a deep dive on designing resilient global networks using LEO as a first‑class path, and we unpack how this affects SD‑WAN policies, latency budgets, and multi‑path failover. Then we head to the Venetian and the Five Guys takeover, where eero powers every transaction, kiosk, and dashboard across more than 10,000 square feet. This live, high‑density environment doubles as a working lab: we’ll show a custom mini rack, demonstrate eero’s API integrations, and walk through how AWS Site‑to‑Site VPN with eero streamlines secure connectivity for remote sites and distributed workforces. Think ship‑and‑plug activation, policy‑driven control, and cloud‑level observability scaled across many locations without hand‑holding. If you care about making networks simpler, faster, and more resilient—from rural branches to pop‑ups to busy QSRs—this is your field guide. Join us in Las Vegas, grab lunch during the Wednesday demo window, and see how LEO backhaul and eero at the edge turn the cloud into a practical, everyday platform. Subscribe, share with a teammate who owns branch networking, and leave a review to tell us what you want to see tested next. Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    7 min
  3. Desired State Networking, Nostalgia, New Gear From Meter & Ubiquiti, T-Mobile’s Slicing, Wi‑Fi 7, And EU Spectrum Shifts

    NOV 25

    Desired State Networking, Nostalgia, New Gear From Meter & Ubiquiti, T-Mobile’s Slicing, Wi‑Fi 7, And EU Spectrum Shifts

    Send us a text A week in San Francisco rekindled the builder’s spirit: start with intent, then craft the hardware, software, and process to make that outcome inevitable. From the Pier 27 backdrop to on‑stage moments with Anil, Sunil, and Bob Metcalfe, we trace how desired state networking shifts the conversation away from bolt‑ons and toward autonomy, reliability, and clarity. Think less “features” and more “the network just does what we expect”—and if it drifts, it self‑corrects and tells us why. We dig into the product details that make that vision real: SFP ports moved to avoid snags, dual‑board firewalls for built‑in redundancy, and an IP67 AP that can switch antenna patterns in software for warehouses, hospitality, and large retail. Operations take center stage as Michelle shows how kitting, rack studs, and pre‑tilted AP mounts cut install time from minutes to seconds, standardize outcomes, and shrink on‑site surprises. It’s the part of networking that saves budgets and reputations, even if it rarely gets the headline. Then the industry lens widens. T‑Mobile’s network slicing at the Las Vegas Grand Prix delivers dedicated lanes for first responders, payments, and media—wireless as a dynamic service, not a fixed asset. Ubiquiti blends a Wi‑Fi 7 bridge inside a switch for flexible uplinks. Europe’s upper 6 GHz decision pushes more indoor performance toward cellular while Wi‑Fi 7 continues its rapid rise, with Dell’Oro forecasting dominance by 2028. We also spotlight OpenRoaming’s momentum as Purple makes entry‑level onboarding and roaming enablement free, and a Wi‑Fi HaLow collaboration from Morse Micro and GL.iNet that stretches low‑power IoT across campuses and fields. Along the way, a dose of tech nostalgia reminds us why clarity matters: build systems that make the right outcome the easy one. Join us for a grounded tour of what’s shipping, what’s changing, and what’s actually useful. If the vision of autonomous, intent‑driven networks gets you curious—or if you just want practical wins you can deploy this quarter—hit play, subscribe, and share your thoughts. And if you’ll be at AWS re:Invent, message us to swing by our live demo and say hello. Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    38 min
  4. How Carriers, Cafes, And Satellites Are Rewriting Internet Access. Also: It's meter up week! What to expect..

    NOV 17

    How Carriers, Cafes, And Satellites Are Rewriting Internet Access. Also: It's meter up week! What to expect..

    Send us a text Tomorrow’s Meter Up has the Wi‑Fi world buzzing, and we’re stepping into it with a full slate of stories reshaping how we connect. We set the stage with what we want to learn from Meter’s year of deployments—real outcomes, support models, and how Wi‑Fi 7 fits when most devices are still 6E—then fan out to the bigger map: carriers, cafes, satellites, and the stubborn problem of affordability. AT&T’s rapid mid‑band 5G rollout is a stakes‑raising move, accelerating downloads for phones and fixed wireless and nudging home broadband toward a truly converged model. Over in Austin, a new study shows cost remains the top barrier to adoption, even as coffee shops flex 300+ Mbps speed tests. The contrast is sharp: capacity keeps rising, yet everyday access lives or dies on price, stability, and simple support. Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom launches managed Wi‑Fi 7 with AI‑driven mesh at national scale, cutting lag complaints and giving users real dashboards to prioritize work, streaming, and guests without guesswork. We also track Spectrum’s rural expansion and the human side of Verizon’s 15,000 job cuts as teams pivot to automation, cloud troubleshooting, and AI‑assisted support. Culture gets playful with gamified Wi‑Fi passwords reducing help tickets at a startup hub, a reminder that small behavior tweaks can fix big headaches. And in orbit, Amazon’s rebrand to LEO signals satellite broadband’s move from demo to deployment, with enterprise pilots across aviation, mining, and telemedicine chasing low‑latency, anywhere‑access use cases. Join us as we connect the dots between speed, affordability, and real‑world reliability—and share what we’ll be asking on the ground at Meter Up. If this conversation hits your wavelength, follow, share it with a fellow network nerd, and drop your question for the Meter team so we can bring it to the room. Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    18 min

  5. NOV 8

    Why Wi-Fi 8 Multi-AP Coordination, Wi‑Fi 7 Rollouts And Open RAN Moves Signal A Faster, Smarter Network Future

    Send us a text Headlines hit hard this week, and we stitched them into a practical roadmap you can use. We start with the fresh demos pointing toward Wi‑Fi 8’s multi‑AP future—coordinated radios, smarter spectral reuse, and AI‑assisted congestion control aimed squarely at dense campuses where roaming and contention burn time and budget. Some features may stay aspirational, but the signal is clear: access points are learning to cooperate, not compete. From there we ground the hype in what’s shipping. Rogers lit up Wi‑Fi 7 gear in Quebec with TP‑Link and Cisco hardware, Aruba pushed MLO improvements for cleaner onboarding across 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz, and forecasts suggest a meaningful slice of new APs will be Wi‑Fi 7 capable by year’s end. On the carrier side, an MVNO pact opens dual‑SIM handsets and smarter Wi‑Fi‑cellular handoffs for business users. The dream of a seamless hybrid fabric still trips on handoff quirks, but the ecosystem is finally lining up—hardware, firmware, and deployment playbooks. We also zoom out to the RAN. Deutsche Telekom’s partnership with Rakuten to orchestrate tens of thousands of sites signals that multi‑vendor Open RAN is ready for prime time. Faster provisioning, easier failover, and the freedom to mix Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung radios—with a Cisco security overlay—give operators levers they’ve wanted for years. At the edge of the home and office, Matter certifications for Nest, Echo, and Eve plus multiprotocol hubs from TP‑Link and Linksys shorten onboarding and normalize WPA3 and segmentation, which is good news for MSPs, MDUs, and smart‑building teams. Security headlines keep us honest. A fresh warning on evil twin attacks meets urgent firmware from Cisco and Fortinet that adds anomaly detection and automated quarantine. We translate that into action: zero trust on guest networks, continuous AI‑driven threat modeling, and verified patch windows. After a week of DNS and cloud wobbles—yes, everyone still blames “the Wi‑Fi”—we stress tested cellular failover and reviewed playbooks that keep users working and ops sane. Listen for the quick takeaways, keep what helps, and share what you’re seeing in the field. If this briefing sharpened your planning, follow the show, drop a review, and pass it to a teammate who needs the TL;DR before their next strategy meeting. Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    9 min
  6. An Interview with Matt Larsen, WISPA 2025 Operator of the Year: How Open Access Could Rewrite The ISP Playbook

    OCT 23

    An Interview with Matt Larsen, WISPA 2025 Operator of the Year: How Open Access Could Rewrite The ISP Playbook

    Send us a text What if the best ISP on your block doesn’t own the tower—or even the access network? Drew sits down with Matt Larson, founder and CEO of VistaBeam and chair of WISPA, to explore how open access for fixed wireless and fiber could flip the broadband model from top to bottom. With radio platforms now supporting hundreds of subscribers per sector and multi‑operator IDs on the same AP, shared infrastructure is finally reliable enough to scale. We dig into the real-world friction behind RDOF and BEAD, from delays to defaults, and why contract terms like termination for convenience and reimbursement cadence determine whether builders participate or walk. Matt shares a pragmatic blueprint: treat the access layer like a utility, let specialists focus on what they do best, and use a neutral clearinghouse to standardize APIs, reconcile usage, and settle payments across many operators. The payoff is faster market entry, lower capex per brand, and healthier rural broadband economics. Along the way, we trade notes on vendor advances, consolidation jitters, and the quiet power of AI to improve network operations, customer support, and data analysis without the buzzwords. Most importantly, we spotlight partnerships that replace range wars: one operator runs rock‑solid infrastructure, another owns local relationships, and both win by eliminating duplicate towers, rents, and headaches. If you care about broadband equity, small‑ISP survival, or simply getting reliable service where you live, this conversation offers a clear path forward. Enjoy the episode? Follow the show, share it with a colleague who cares about open access, and leave a quick review to help more builders find us. Then tell us: would you trade some margin to move faster on shared infrastructure? Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    19 min

  7. OCT 10

    Pop-up Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Sensing, Backscatter & More! Waves October 2025

    Send us a text A polo field, a VIP tent, and thousands of devices waiting to light up—this week we take you behind the scenes of building a festival‑grade network that had to stand up fast, survive wind and wobble, and still deliver when John Mayer took the stage. We share the practical playbook: dual circuits into a gateway, 60 GHz point‑to‑multipoint for distribution, clean PoE runs to access points, and the small field hacks—like orange flags on telescoping poles—that make line of sight and troubleshooting human‑fast. Expect candid notes on channel utilization, why 2.4 GHz was a swamp, when simple tooling beats exotic analyzers, and how teardown can take ten minutes when setup is intentional. From there, we zoom out to the bigger waves reshaping enterprise wireless. Wi‑Fi 7 adoption is climbing, which means real‑world mixed‑generation estates, careful upgrade points, and a renewed focus on telemetry and automation. We dig into the early promise of 802.11bf passive sensing—turning existing Wi‑Fi into a presence and motion sensor without new transmissions—and the rise of analog backscatter for ultra‑low‑power IoT. Privacy, consent, and coexistence aren’t afterthoughts; they’re table stakes if ambient intelligence is going to be useful and welcomed. On the competitive front, watch the split between cost‑sensitive solutions and license‑heavy premium stacks as buyers prioritize networks that “just work,” observable by default and simpler to run. We also tackle private 5G’s steady role alongside Wi‑Fi, the reality check on satellite‑to‑device indoors, and what an FCC furlough means for approvals and product timelines. Underneath the tech is the human story: field craft, community, and a job market that’s finally moving again. If you’re looking to pivot into roles like solutions architecture or systems engineering, now’s a good moment to raise your hand—and we’re happy to make introductions where we can. Subscribe for weekly, field‑tested insights on Wi‑Fi, sensing, and connectivity strategy, share this episode with a teammate who loves hands‑on lessons, and leave a quick review to help more builders find the show. Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    48 min
  8. The Future of Restaurant Hospitality, Technology & Connectivity. Plus: Apple's N1 Chip!

    SEP 19

    The Future of Restaurant Hospitality, Technology & Connectivity. Plus: Apple's N1 Chip!

    Send us a text The wireless world never stops evolving, and in this episode, Drew Lentz takes us on a journey through the latest developments across multiple technology frontiers. Starting with Apple's intriguing N1 chip introduction, Drew explores what this means for wireless communications and sparks a fascinating discussion about whether Apple might resurrect their once-popular Airport routers. Could this custom silicon be the foundation for Apple's return to networking hardware? Beyond Apple, the wireless tool landscape continues its rapid evolution. From Sidos unveiling new wall drawing capabilities to Ekahau & Ookla for a groundbreaking "Speed Test Certified" program, vendors are raising the bar through differentiated innovation rather than simply matching features. This certification program particularly resonates as it addresses a long-standing need for verified connectivity validation in public spaces. The heart of this episode, however, focuses on Drew's revelations from the Food Service Technology Expo (FSTech) in Orlando. Despite being surrounded by AI vendors, restaurant operators consistently steered conversations toward enhancing human connections rather than replacing them with technology. This powerful insight—that people visit restaurants during emotionally significant moments deserving of human interaction—challenges our assumptions about technology's role in hospitality. Drew articulates a compelling vision where technology should function like reliable plumbing—essential but invisible—enabling memorable human experiences without becoming the focus. The "thin line between useful and creepy" becomes a central theme when discussing personalization, with thoughtful examples of how restaurants might use data to enhance customer experiences while respecting boundaries. Whether you're a wireless professional, restaurant operator, or technology enthusiast, this episode delivers practical insights about the delicate balance between technological advancement and human connection. As Drew reminds us in his signature straightforward style, the most valuable innovations are those that enhance relationships rather than replace them. Support the show Thanks to our sponsors: Helium & meter Networks! 🤑Looking for ways to monetize your network? Check out helium.com! 💡Change everything you thought you knew about networking at meter.com

    48 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Join me for a weekly look into what's making waves in tech and the wireless industry! What's new? What's now? What's next?

Information

  • Creator
    Drew Lentz the Wirelessnerd
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2025
  • Episodes
    76
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Waves with Wireless Nerd
  • Show Website
    Waves with Wireless Nerd