In this week’s news, Wi-Fi Aware will enable peer-to-peer connection and interaction between two smartphones wifiusing proximity features without being near a hotspot. The Obama administration announced an initiative to provide free or low-cost Internet to public housing residents. And Verizon has partnered with Vice Media LLC, which will provide content for its new mobile video service.

The Wi-Fi Alliance recently kicked off a Wi-Fi Aware certification program, which could lead to having Wi-Fi Aware devices on store shelves by next year, according to Fortune. Wi-Fi Aware is the next generation of Wi-Fitechnology,
allowing smartphone Wi-Fi radios to directly connect to one another when in range, rather than to a wireless network.

Currently, services like Facebook and Tinder use proximity to detect nearby devices and to trigger social interaction, powered by GPS, which can locate a building, but not necessarily a specific area or floor within the building, the article said.

Wi-Fi Aware can specifically sense quickly converging or diverging devices and supply device discovery and a communications framework, Fortune said. Proximity features can then be built on top of that framework. The technology will also have security features to protect consumers from being swamped with information from every nearby device.

Once Wi-Fi Aware devices scan for other nearby Wi-Fi devices, they will coordinate with one another to save power, the article said, “transmitting on the same schedule like a common heartbeat.”