The invention of Wi-Fi is the result of contributions from multiple people over several decades rather than a single inventor.

• Hedy Lamarr , a Hollywood actress in the 1940s, along with composer George Antheil, invented a frequency hopping system to prevent enemy jamming of radio signals during World War II. This technology laid the groundwork for spread spectrum communication used in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS today

• The actual technology that made modern Wi-Fi fast and reliable was developed in the 1990s by an Australian team led by John O'Sullivan at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). They created core technology for wireless LAN by solving problems related to radio wave interference, originally while researching radio signals from black holes. Their patents form part of the Wi-Fi standards

• Vic Hayes is often called the "father of Wi-Fi" because he chaired the IEEE committee that established the international standard for wireless networking (IEEE 802.11) in 1997, which helped bring Wi-Fi to widespread commercial use

In summary:

• Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil invented the foundational frequency hopping concept.
• John O'Sullivan and his CSIRO team developed key technology enabling modern Wi-Fi.
• Vic Hayes led the standardization efforts that made Wi-Fi commercially viable.

Thus, Wi-Fi as we know it today is built on the pioneering work of these individuals and others over many years.