So here’s to 15 more years. May your signal be strong, your latency low, and may you never have to explain to tech support that you’ve "already tried resetting it." Disclaimer: If you actually have a broken WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) from 2009, please recycle it. It’s time to let go.

For the last decade and a half, we have been haunted by a phantom. It appears as three little bars in the corner of your phone screen, only to vanish when you try to send a message. It is the promise of the world, throttled down to a spinning wheel of death. We are talking, of course, about the era of Bad WAP—15 years of wireless access points that promised ubiquity but delivered frustration.

While the acronym "WAP" has recently been co-opted by pop culture (thanks to Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion), in the gritty reality of IT help desks and living room couches, WAP has always stood for something else: