What is Li-Fi, and how practical is it in the real world?

Li-fi successfully tested at 150 Mbps, say Chinese scientists

Li-Fi stands for Light Fidelity, and it's being presented at this time as an eventual replacement for Wi-Fi-transmitted internet. While the term Li-Fi actually does stem from the term Light Fidelity, the word Wi-Fi stems from Hi-Fi, or High Fidelity, from the audio term for home audio, high-quality sound production. The people presenting Li-Fi have taken the concept of the Signal Lamp (aka the Aldis Lamp), sending morse code between ships at sea, instead sending data to your phone. Li-Fi is also known as visible light communications (VLC) technology.

A company by the name of Velmenni has produced a lightbulb that works with Li-Fi technology on a small scale. They are not the first to prove the technology works, but they are the first to carry out a "real-world test." Their demonstrations have shown data transfer speeds of around 1 Gbps, or just around 100-times faster than the average Wi-Fi data speed in the USA today.

Li-Fi can deliver data quite a bit faster than Wi-Fi, but like Wi-Fi, its speed depends on the initial potential speed of the data being delivered by, for example, your home internet service. If your home internet speed is capped at 1Gbps speeds, your Li-Fi system wont go any faster than that.

Li-Fi depends on your device being within range of the light being transmitted by your Li-Fi bulb. You literally need to be able to see the light to get the data.