http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/25480.html
Intel launches 802.11a Euro assault
By Drew Cullen
Posted: 28/05/2002 at 12:34 GMT
Intel today launched 802.11a WLAN cards into Europe, or quite a lot
of it. The
company has received regulatory approval for the use of 802.11a
products in
France, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden. And it
reckons other European countries will soon follow suit.
It's also shipping the Intel PRO/Wireless 2000 Land Dual Band Access
Point
continent-wide. This supports 802.11b clients and delivers an
upgrade path to
802.11a. And it's bundling together an access point and two notebook
adapters
into a 802.11a starter kit. It says that PCI and mini-PCI adaptors
The data transfer rate for 802.11a cards is theoretically 54Mbps,
approximately
five times faster than the 11Mbps available for 802.11b equivalents.
In practice,
the real speed for both technologies is around half the stated
maximum.
It's been a long haul getting 802.11a through Europe's maze of
regulators, many
of which have been less than keen to free up radio spectrum for its
use.
Procrastination over choosing rival wireless standards also means
that Europe
has lagged behind the US and some Asian countries in adopting
802.11a.
However, the War seems won, and although there are plenty of battles
still to be
fought, the world is coalescing around 802.11 in its many guises as
the wireless
standard, albeit on different spectrums. This is welcomed by Intel's
Sean
Maloney, head of Intel's Communications Group. In his keynote speech
today at
IDF Europe, Maloney cites Gordon Moore, Intel's chairman emeritus,
with one
of his less well-known observations: "You get out of a recession
with tomorrow's
products". Stuff that will excite consumers, that will get them
buying again.
Malone clearly thinks that wireless computing is a tomorrow product,
or what he
grandly dubs a "post-recessionary technology".
But this is tempered with some caution. Malone notes that 802.11 is
"probably
towards the height of a hyperbole curve". However, Intel is very
keen on the
technology.
802.11 has the potential to deliver "truly ubiquitious computing",
he says. The
stress here is on potential. It goes back to standards again,
ensuring
interoperabilility, getting seamless billing systems in place ( just
like currently
exists for mobile phones) making sure that 802.11a and 802.11b
co-exist
everywhere, sorting out the security mess. Intel loves standards:
they mean
mass economies of scale, driving down prices and creating mass
markets. It will
continue working the backrooms to ensure that world sticks to a
single set of
wireless standards.
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