Announcing the First Wi-Fi Certified Products That Support Cellular and Wi-Fi Communications

Austin, Tx, October 21, 2004 - The Wi-Fi Alliancetoday announced the first round of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products providing bothWi-Fi and cellular communications. These certifications, along with the largenumber of similar products under development, point to a rapidly evolving trendtoward a range of products that enable both Wi-Fi and cellular communications.In response to this trend, the Wi-Fi Alliance has initiated a Wi-Fi/CellularConvergence (WCC) task group focused on identifying and meeting the cellular industrysunique certification requirements for Wi-Fi functions in WCC devices.

 

The first round of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ productswith WCC capabilities includes:

Wi-FiCapable PDA/Cell Phones HP iPAQ PocketPC h6315 (available now) Nokia 9500Communicator (scheduled for Q4 2004) Motorola MPx(scheduled for 2nd half of 2004) Wi-FiCapable Handheld Computer Intermec 760Mobile Computer (available now) Wi-FiConvergence Accessories (enables Wi-Fi in select PDA/cell phones) SanDisk ConnectWi-Fi SD Card (available now) Through its established global network oflabs, the Wi-Fi Alliance has the certification infrastructure in place toadvance the cellular industrys adoption of Wi-Fi in converged Wi-Fi/Cellularproducts, said Wi-Fi Alliance Managing Director, Frank Hanzlik. Our extensive experience in certifying Wi-Fi products will enable this exciting new categoryof WCC products to deliver the same high level of customer satisfaction that consumers expect from the Alliances certification programs.

Responding to the unique needs of the cellular industry,the Alliance has been workingwith the worlds leading convergence device manufacturers to form a new taskgroup that will facilitate this markets growth. We see this initiative as avaluable opportunity for product manufacturers and service providers to worktogether to define the requirements of this market, Hanzlik added.

See Wi-Fi at International CES Wi-Fi-based wireless LAN technology will be on display at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) (South Hall #4, Booth#37017), January 6-9, 2005, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

About the Wi-Fi AllianceThe Wi-Fi Alliance (formerly WECA) is the global Wi-Fi organization that created the Wi-Fi brand. A nonprofit trade association, the Alliance was formed in 1999to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 products and to promote them as theglobal, wireless LAN standard across all market segments.

The Wi-Fi Alliance has instituted a testsuite that defines how member products are tested to certify that they areinteroperable with other Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. These tests are conducted atindependent laboratories.

Membership in the Wi-Fi Alliance is open to all companiesthat support the IEEE 802.11 family of standards. The Wi-Fi Alliance nowcomprises over 200 members from the worlds leading companies. These companiesoffer over 1,500 Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ products. For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org.

 

Press and analyst contact: C. Brian Grimm Wave Communications for Wi-Fi Alliance 910.686.0870 briang@wavecoms.com

 

 

Back