The term Wi-Fi, commercially used at least as early as August 2000, was coined by a brand-consulting firm called Interbrand Corporation. The Wi-Fi Alliance had hired Interbrand to determine a name that was "a little catchier than 'IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence'".Phil Belanger, a founding member of the Wi-Fi Alliance who presided over the selection of the name "Wi-Fi", also stated that Interbrand invented Wi-Fi as a play on words with Hi-Fi (high fidelity), and also created the Wi-Fi logo. The term 'fidelity' refers to the faithfulness/accuracy of reproduction or transmission of the signal, and 'wireless' is a distinguishing feature that contrasted with earlier internet connection technologies such as wired Ethernet.
The Wi-Fi Alliance initially used the advertising slogan, "The Standard for Wireless Fidelity",for Wi-Fi but later removed the phrase from their marketing. Despite this, some documents from the Alliance dated 2003 and 2004 still contain the term Wireless Fidelity.There was no official statement related to the dropping of the term.
The yin-yang Wi-Fi logo indicates the certification of a product for interoperability.
Non-Wi-Fi technologies intended for fixed points such as Motorola Canopy are usually described as fixed wireless. Alternative wireless technologies include mobile phone standards such as 2G,3G or 4G.