Wireless Networks and the Problems of Over-Connectedness

Abstract

The idea of connectivity underpins much recent investment and innovation in wireless networks. This paper suggests wireless networks such as Wi-Fi actually put the ideal of network connectivity in question in some ways. The paper constructs a set of contrasts based on different wireless networks in Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. It argues that many different ideals of network connectivity intersect in wireless internet networks. Rather than being the examplar of connectivity, the practices, spaces, cultures and politics of wireless networks display forms of over-connectedness irreducible to the ideal of connectivity. They entail deep entanglements between the political economy of information, visions of technoeconomic progress and market competition, feelings of proximity, connectivity and mobility, and sensibilities of change.