These days, it’s hard to think of any major consumer product that doesn’t offer wireless Internet connectivity.  Thermostats, appliances, cars, baby monitors – all of these and more depend on mobile web access.

The mobile revolution is driven by advances in radio spectrum engineering and mobile connectivity. In this podcast, High Tech Forum founder Richard Bennett and Shane Tews of the American Enterprise Institute and Vrge Strategies discuss how these remarkable developments are revolutionizing everyday products integral to our lives, including Li-Fi, 5G, FirstNet and connectivity for the Internet of Things.

As the two discuss, Li-Fi is a light-based technology for data transmission that has been in the news recently. Using unlicensed high-frequency visible light spectrum, Li-Fi utilizes pulses of light indiscernible to the human eye to send data. As Richard notes, the processing technologies required for Li-Fi are improving according to Moore’s Law, which bodes well for viability in the near future.

Richard and Shane also discuss advances in 5G wireless, as engineers adapt emerging technologies to millimeter wave frequencies, and Bluetooth, which has become dramatically more energy efficient.

And they also discuss FirstNet, the proposed interoperable mobile communications network for first responders. Using 20 MHz of spectrum, FirstNet will provide crucial nationwide mobile connectivity at 4G LTE speeds. It will also alleviate the dramatic problem seen during September 11, 2001 of police, fire and rescue teams unable to communicate with each other due to reliance on proprietary systems.

Make sure to listen to the full podcast to hear more about the technologies outlined above.