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hedy Lamarr Mother of Wifi

Meet the Mother of WiFi

 blog author
WRITTEN BY
Heidi Cormack
Chief Marketing Officer

Meet the Mother of WiFi


As we celebrate Women’s History Month, NETGEAR salutes the visionary and innovative polymath Hedy Lamarr, whose frequency hopping invention paved the way for our industry, and who is emblematic of the importance of diversity and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) education in high tech.

Most people know Hedy Lamarr as a top actress during Hollywood’s golden era. She is less well known as a brilliant inventor. One of her inventions, with composer George Antheil, was a forerunner to today’s WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS technologies, and has led many to dub Lamarr the mother of WiFi .

The National Women’s History Museum describes their invention as “an extraordinary new communication system used with the intention of guiding torpedoes to their targets in war. The system involved the use of ‘frequency hopping’ amongst radio waves, with both transmitter and receiver hopping to new frequencies together. Doing so prevented the interception of the radio waves, thereby allowing the torpedo to find its intended target.”


Lamarr’s invention is foundational and she serves as an example of the importance of inclusivity and diversity. NETGEAR is proud that 38 percent of our global workforce identifies as female, above the tech industry average of 33 percent . During Women’s History Month, NETGEAR is renewing our commitment to increasing that number. To learn more about NETGEAR’s commitment to diversity, see our Environmental, Social & Governance website .