The New 802.11n Standard Is Still Up For Grabs

If you're one of those tech savvy consumers that couldn't wait for the 802.11n Wi-Fi ISO standard to be ratified by the organization and purchased one the many Pre-N routers that are on the market today, you might want to take note of this bit of information. Seems like several of the major players of these products squabbling with each other over the standard.

What it looks like is that Intel, Sony and Cisco are on one side of the street while Nokia, Airgo Networks (Netgear's chipmaker) and Texas Instruments are on the other. The Intel-Cisco-Sony combination is the group that is attempting to skew what many thought would be the accepted standard. This same group along with Atheros, Toshiba and Symbol has formed a new organization called the Enhance Wireless Consortium that is developing a draft standard proposal that it will submit to the IEEE as the proposed new 802.11n standard.

So what does this mean to consumers? A couple of things come to mind. First, more of a wait. While many thought that the current proposed standard was written in stone might have to change their minds and wait until the squabbling is over. No problem however if that standard is accepted. On the other hand, if the EWC's proposition is accepted then those who purchased Pre-N equipment will own network devices that are non-standard. Although it won't be much of a problem for home users that can use the equipment and enjoy its performance regardless of the standard, but likely a problem for enterprise business that have an intent to expand.

About The Author:

Dan Robins is the webmaster of CRNH.COM Computer Reviews News and Hardware, an online RSS news aggregator that offers thousand of computer related news stories.